Malestrom of the Leaf
by silentdragon2k8
Summary: response to dracohalo117's the Naruto hates minato challenge. Summary: Naruto finds out about the Kyuubi and his father during the whole scroll incident and doesn’t take the news as positively as one would expect AUsemidarkNar possible harem
1. Chapter 1 prelude

This is a response to a challenge by dracohalo117the Naruto hates minato challenge.

Summary: Naruto finds out about the Kyuubi and his father during the whole scroll incident and doesn't take the news as positively as one would expect.

NOTICE this is NOT I REPEAT NOT A NARU/HINA FIC I detest it for some odd reason but I will make the pairing work somehow hehehe…anyways this is my first official fanfic so flames be welcomed pleas R &R

…..Normal speaks…

…_.Inner thoughts…._

……**Kage Bunshin No Jutsu….**

……**I am the mighty Kyuubi or summons…**

everyone should know how fan fiction works but for those who don't I do not own Naruto in any way shape form or fashion…the only thing that I could possibly take credit for is the original jutsu that I come up with or some ideas which might have already been done

It was the day of the academy graduation exams and like the 2 years prior Naruto Uzumaki was sweating bullets. Unlike the previous years he would not be allowed back in the academy due to the age cutoff. He had just turned 13 during the year and would be 14 the next year which would be too old to be in the academy.

The test was pretty standard a paper test that accounted for 40% of the final result (although he had no earthly idea why a paper exam would weigh so heavily when it was practical skills that saved so many life's) shuriken and kunai throwing test a taijutsu portion and finally the ninjutsu portion which included the replacement, henge, and Bunshin techniques.

Paper test were never Naruto's strong point so it was expected that he would most likely fail that but as long as he got the remaining 60% needed to pass he would graduate and finally become a genin of Konoha. He proved that he was accurate enough to pass the weapons portion and "survived" the taijutsu portion leaving him the ninjutsu portion standing between him and a leaf headband.

"Naruto Uzumaki!" shouted iruka for the ninjutsu portion. And with a grin Naruto bounded off for the examination room fully expecting to be able to pull off the Bunshin technique this time. He had practiced for weeks trying to get a functioning clone to appear.

"ok now for this portion of the exam I need you to do a replacement with this chair here, henge into a perfect copy of Mizuki here, and make 3 functioning Bunshin to pass. Is that understood?" stated Iruka who was hoping that he would be able to tell the blond knucklehead in front of him that he passed and was finally on his way to becoming a ninja.

"Right! Just you watch Iruka-sensi I'm gonna pass this exam and then I will be one step closer to becoming hokage!!" shouted Naruto with a salute before he replaced himself with the chair and then while smoke still covered the area henged into a perfect copy of Mizuki who was assisting in the examination. "Impressive Naruto" stated Iruka who was surprised at his fluid transgression into the jutsu "now I need you to make 3 bunshin and you will pass" stated Iruka before Naruto scrunched up his face in concentration and did the hand seals slowly so he wouldn't mess them up. With a cry of **BUNSHIN NO JUTSU** he attempted the jutsu. When the smoke cleared there was 2 frail looking bunshin and one that was completely dead next to him. And with a heavy heart and a shake of his head Iruka told him the words he was dreading the whole day. "YOU FAIL" completely crushed Naruto runs out the academy and goes to his favorite swing to think about what he was going to do since he wouldn't be able to become a ninja anymore.

While he was sitting there thinking he started to look at the kids who were celebrating with there parents about their passing the exams and becoming ninja of the village. He looked on with a hint of jealousy at how their parents would dote and acknowledge them and tell them how much they loved them and how proud they were. He was so caught up watching them that he didn't notice one of the instructors approaching him until he called his name and startled him.

Naruto was then told about a secret alternative exam that was harder to do but guaranteed promotion to genin.

"So all I have to do is sneak into the old mans office, take the old scroll, and learn a technique from it to pass" asked an excited Naruto at the chance to be a ninja. Mizuki just smirked to himself and thought 'all I have to do now is wait for the panic to rise and kill the brat and take the scroll to lord orochimaru…' he gave Naruto a deceivingly kind smile and gave him a basic layout of the area and the location of the scroll. He was so caught up in his thoughts of power that he forgot to tell him where to meet him and by the time he thought about it Naruto was gone.

Later at the office…

**SEXY JUTSU** and in a puff of smoke Naruto was replaced with a blonde girl with waist length pig tails whisker marks blue eyes and nothing but thin wafts of smoke covering her generous assets. The poor old man didn't have a chance and was blown back by a massive amount of blood and knocked unconscious. Naruto then went to the area where the scroll was kept, took it, and ran off like a bat outta hell.

Naruto ran to a place behind the Hokage Mountain that had a small waterfall with a natural cave behind it. He had found it a couple of years back when the villagers were chasing him on his birth day and went there ever since for his birthday. Nobody ever found him there so he figured it would be the best place to start learning the techniques.

1 hour later….

"Man this jutsu rocks!!! And their solid so they can fight…hmm I wonder what else they can do…" wondered Naruto who had just finished learning the required jutsu from the scroll. At first he paled at the sight of another bunshin jutsu but then kept on reading and found it used more chakra so he thought it might work better for him. 'Hmm….creates a solid clone…..uses a huge amount of chakra….umm learns everything clones did….dispelled in one hit….wait what?

Kage Bunshin can be used to spy or even help train because the original learns everything the clone does after it is dispelled…hmm I think I need to remember that. CRAP!!! I'm gonna run outta time I guess I should copy some of this down for later" he thinks as he creates 5 clones to help read through and copy some stuff down for later use...

…hmm ohh BUNSHIN DIABAKU makes an exploding clone….ok I think this will work nicely with the kage bunshin…he keeps reading and scanning through the scroll until he finds the same swirl mark that he wears on his arm… he remembered something from class talking about seals so he bit his thumb and wiped some on the scroll and pumped some chakra into it. 'I don't think it would hurt to try…besides how many people wear the spiral mark anyway… and to his surprise 3 scrolls popped out saying for Naruto Uzumaki.

'O….k…. that's soooooo not weird or anything....' he thought as he read the one that said to Naruto on it and pocked the other two for later.

_Dear Naruto,_

_My name is Minato Namikaze I go by a few aliases such as the Yellow Flash, Iwa's Bane, and most of all 4__th__ Hokage and in case you're wondering I'm your dad. The nine-tailed fox Kyuubi is attacking the village for reasons unknown to me seeing that he is supposed to be the protector of the area around here. Now I must prepare to seal it inside of you, as it is the only way to defeat a being as powerful as the fox. I can only hope that your life will be different from the other demon containers and that this land see's you as their hero. I don't have much time left so I will leave you with some things. I don't know if it will make things better but I have left you with everything I own all my techniques research assets everything. I love you and your mother so much I just want you to know that and also watch out for the Uchiha there's something wrong about this whole situation I know they are planning something I just don't know what. Live a good life and I hope you grow to be older than me my son._

_M.N._

"………….." Naruto sat and reread the letter 3 more times before finally generating a somewhat coherent thought, 'THE FUCK?!?!?!?!?!' he shouted in his head over and over as rage started building in him. The day's events were just too much for Naruto as he felt something snap inside of him. Failing the test all the glares and comments... it was just too much and his mind shut down temporarily. Dark tendrils started to form around him as he meditated over all these recent thoughts. Suddenly he started to chuckle "heh so that's it huh? Well fine then MINATO! Just leave me to rot without even trying to make steps to help me? Way to fuck up someone's life…you a father? Don't make me laugh. I have no FATHER," he spat out the word like bitter and spoiled milk. "I don't need you not now not ever. I will become the best around on my own terms and with that he set off to train once more. The forbidden scroll lay forgotten on the ground.


	2. scrolls, lies, and things that go boom

**hey this is silentdragon, here giving you the next installment of my story i dont own naruto if i did sauske would be locked in a cell somewhere but yea check out the author note at the bottom please r&r and umm enjoy.**

**also there is a poll on my profile on what naruto's secondary element should be it will be open til next wednesday 12/16/09 the results will help me along in my decision because wheres the fun in a dictatorship. i want to know what my readers want  
**

Last time: _Suddenly he started to chuckle "heh so that's it huh? Well fine then MINATO! Just leave me to rot without even trying to make steps to help me? Way to fuck up someone's life…you a father? Don't make me laugh. I have no FATHER," he spat out the word like bitter and spoiled milk. "I don't need you not now not ever. I will become the best around on my own terms and with that he set off to train once more. The forbidden scroll lay forgotten on the ground._

* * *

With Naruto….

"Phew…..that….was…weird." he thought as the experience of himself dying rushed into his head for like the 50th time. "Ok wont be using that too much it's just wrong to experience death so many times. 'so what's next hmm ohh this sounds nice **Fuuton Atsugai (pressure damage)** it's a really strong A Rank wind jutsu that forms a large destructive gale of wind…hmm I wonder if I can use this' he thought as it sounded pretty cool. He was still pissed about the letter but he was still a teen and that sounded way better than those stupid academy jutsu. And just as his thoughts reached the academy he remembered once hearing about something called affinities and how if someone had an affinity to certain elements then those jutsu would be a whole lot easier to use so with that thought he promised to go find out what his affinity was. "Now on to this jutsu…..

3hours later with Hokage...

"Lord Hokage…."started his assistant as she walked in to bring him some more paperwork only to see him laying on his back with a puddle of blood trailing from private library. It was quite a shock to the poor assistant who ran out yelling for ANBU as if her life depended on it.

The ruckus and shouts were enough to rouse the poor old man from his pevy induced stupor as he tried to gather his thoughts to remember what happened…'ugh Naruto and his sexy….NARUTO!!! Shouted the weary old man as he rushed to his library where he kept the forbidden scroll of seals. 'NonononoNO how could this happen…if that scroll gets in the wrong hands…by kami **ANBU!**" he shouted with such authority that half the operatives stationed in the tower showed up, "Naruto has stolen the forbidden scroll of seals I want him found and brought here 20 minutes ago. Dismissed!" and with a chorus of HAI's the ANBU shunshined away to find our resident trouble maker. Little did they know that within an hour said troublemaker would be fighting for his life.

With Naruto….

Naruto had finally gotten the jutsu to work but it wasn't as strong as the description showed. 'Its probably because of all the chakra I've been using or the wrong type of chakra' thought Naruto as he rested under a tree feeling more exhausted than the time the villagers chased him on his 9th birthday 'maybe I'll just take a quick nap while I wait for Mizuki sensei to find me' and with that thought our hero drifted off to sleep…

In mindscape…

Naruto was having a wonderful dream these four beautiful women wearing ramen print bikini's were feeding him ramen and calling him Naruto-sama. It was going great until he thought of the nine tailed fox and this door just appeared out of nowhere. He was about to ignore it but then the beautiful women started squealing like fangirls and turned into the girls from his class and when he looked over in the direction of the girls attention he saw Sauske standing there looking like he is superior to everything. So while mourning the loss of his favorite fantasy he runs to the doorway but not without flipping the Uchiha off and imagining him being chained down so the fangirls could have their evil way with their Sauske-kun.

Naruto crackled like a madman at the thought of the mighty Uchiha being bested by rabid fangirls. Those thoughts were driven from his mind as he walked into a sewer with water reaching up to his ankles and pipes leading down to dark corridors. "So this is my head huh…" thought Naruto as he continued to walk down the sewer he gave a whistle of awe as he saw this huge golden gate at the end of the tunnel. 'that must be the seal' thought Naruto as he walked up to it to see a huge fox sleeping like it was trying to recover some strength. Naruto saw that the fox was sleeping away and thought' as long as the giant fur ball aint messin with me we'll be alright' and with that he allowed himself to wake up.

With Iruka…

Iruka had heard the announcement about Naruto and decided to try and find him to see what was happening. Years of practice allowed him to find Naruto's unique chakra signature and he dashed off in the direction of the forest behind the Hokage monument.

With Naruto….

He had just woken up from his dream when he received the memory of being called demon scum and hit with a kunai to the chest. He thought it over and realized that not only was he not alone anymore but someone was probably looking for the scroll…finally realizing he didn't have it he started searching for it because he still had some more stuff to check out

Naruto makes 20 clones and sends them to cover more ground while he goes to check out where his last clone had been dispelled. It didn't take him long to find the spot and just beyond the trees he saw the scroll laying where he had left it. Not knowing the situation and deciding to be cautious he henged a clone and replaced it with the scroll. It was then that he finally realized the potential of the academy jutsu, with the exception of that damnable bunshin of course; he got sidetracked thinking of the possibilities of using henged clones as replacements of items that are required to retrieve on missions. Putting that thought aside for later he focused on the area where the replaced scroll-clone was and saw Mizuki enter the area.

Seeing a familiar face he ran over to the area only to be greeted a handful of shuriken and kunai hurled towards his head. Ducking quickly he asked his sensei what his problem was only to be met by more kunai and shuriken. Just as he was about to retaliate Iruka appeared out of nowhere taking the kunai and shuriken and telling Naruto to run. Still confused by what was going on with his sensei he asked why he was attacking him when the test was only to learn a jutsu from the scroll.

Hearing this Iruka turned his attention towards Mizuki who had started laughing while muttering something about idiot gullible demons. Mizuki then turned his attention to Naruto who was still wondering what was going on when he suddenly asked him a question that he had been wanting answered up until 3 or so hours ago

"Do you want to know why they all hate you? Why you have no friends and why everyone treats you like a leper? Iruka knowing where he was going quickly jumped in "no Mizuki it's forbidden" only to be met with a backhand that sent him straight into a tree.

Knowing that his little pest was out of his hair for a while he continues while unstraping a huge fuuma shuriken off his back, "it's because you're the demon fox Kyuubi! That's why you little piece of shit demon filth," he roared while preparing to throw the huge weapon at the seemingly stunned blond. He stopped dead in his tracks when he heard the emptiest soul shuddering chuckle come from the blond while the wind and small tendrils of what looked like smoke started to gather near him.

"Ku ku ku…oh that? I saw the lazy bastard a couple of hours ago. Anything else? Cause I'm think I'm starting to figure out what's really going on I mean you sure seem eager to break a law just telling me this so I'm gonna throw a kunai in the dark and say that you were going to betray me and steal the scroll and either say something like the demon destroyed it after trying and failing to release the Kyuubi and then either learn from it or sell it off to some other countries. Am I right? Warm? Cold? Come on man tell me SOMETHING!" he shouted while getting into a position to take off at any given time.

Mizuki could only stare as the wind picked up again as if agitated by the boys rage. Quickly getting over his stupor he launches the fuuma shuriken at Naruto ho barely dodged it but got caught in the right bicep. Seeing this and knowing the numbing agent his weapon before he left was starting to take affect he launched himself at Naruto who could only try his best to defend from the superior chuunins skill. After noting that his arm was being numbed from something on the weapon he realized the only way he would make it out of this alive would be to avoid his strikes and either use his exploding clones or hold out for help.

Realizing where the blonds train of thought was Mizuki surprised him even more, " don't even think that the village will try to help you out they will probably call me a hero for killing the fox and maybe even make me Hokage."

Hearing this Naruto came to the ultimate realization that he was truly alone in this fight. Iruka was most likely unconscious from all the numbing agent on the weapons and the blow to the head. He was broken from those thoughts when he heard Iruka trying to tell him something. "…no… (Cough)... (Cough)...your…not... (Cough)…the demon. ..You…are…Uzumaki…Naruto….and...(Cough)….you…will….be…the….best….Hokage…ev..." were his last words as he succumbed to his wounds and trailed off in to the bliss that was unconsciousness.

Those words repeated in his head over and over and before long he decided. "while I have no parents or family left to me I still have you, old man ichiraku, and his daughter Ayame. And if those are the wishes of my precious people then so be it. As long as my family is here and well then that will be my path." Even though he was on the verge of unconsciousness from the blood he lost along with chakra and mental exhaustion he forced his tired body up to make the last hand seal that the traitor Mizuki would ever see.

Naruto poured chakra into the clone and sent it on his way and even as he was falling on his back he could see the shocked face of Mizuki as he mouthed one last word…"boom"

With the Hokage…

The Sandaime and numerous ANBU turned their heads in the direction of the Hokage monument as an incredible spike of chakra was felt followed by a huge explosion. He immediately took off in that direction as he felt Naruto's unmistakable signature spike to insane levels and then just disappear.

He arrived to see what was left of Mizuki's charred and (cut up?) corpse and an unconscious Naruto protecting a equally unconscious Iruka and the scroll of seals. Quickly dissecting the situation he sealed the corpse and had some ANBU secure the scroll and transport Iruka to the hospital while he himself took Naruto.

A couple hours later at the hospital…

Naruto started to wake up only to groan as his body felt like lead and his throat was dry. After being handed a glass of water hi started to thank the person when he finally laid eyes on the man beside him. "You!" was all he said as the Hokage sighed and looked down. He was expecting this sooner or later and had heard from Iruka that he had learned of the fox. He had been dreading this day for sometime now and was wondering why he just didn't tell him before things got like this. He had no idea how much worse the situation was when Naruto shouted "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME? I ASKED YOU FOR YEARS AND ALL YOU EVER DID WAS TELL ME YOU DIDN'T KNOW OR MAYBE LATER" at this the aged man looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders as he looked down in defeat. "please Naruto calm down. I only wanted to protect you and I was going to tell you as soon as I thought you were ready. The Yondaime sealed the fox in you to protect his loved…" he never got a chance to finish that particular sentence as Naruto shouted cutting him off. "Don't bring that BASTARD into this. Protect his loved ones my ass. Look at me! Was **I **PROTECTED? No! I was hunted like game and hated and abused at every turn so don't go sprouting that bullshit with me."

Poor Sarutobi look exasperated he was running out of options so he tried another angle. "Naruto, he wanted you to be seen as a hero. He loved…" and was cut off yet again when he heard a scoff. Naruto glared at him and snarled, " oh, so he decided to be the little martyr and 'sacrifice the himself for his people' and leave me to rot and deal with all of the bullshit hero worshippers?' he turned and got out of the bed much to the dismay of the nurse and turned away from the tired Kage.

"You know, Iruka passed you after he witnessed you protecting him and the scroll. You are an official ninja now." Sarutobi stated tiredly. He didn't know what to do about Naruto now, things were just too complicated for him at the moment.

"Do you know what happened to her?" the question caught him off guard and he quickly recomposed himself while asking who he was talking about.

"My mom" those two words hit him harder than Gai using the gates. "No Naruto-kun I don't know what happened to your parents" he said, unknowingly taking what ever relationship he had with the young blond and shooting it to hell.

"You're lying," he said "the man that sired me was both your successor and your predecessor. I want. to. know. what. happened. to. my mom" he said taking a step forward with each word while pulling out a crumpled letter.

'It seemed that fate had it out for me today' the aged Kage thought while at a training ground in the Hyuga mansion a certain branched member sneezed. "Achoo…hmm it seems fate has it out for somebody to talk about me again today" he said before he began training again to recreate and master the kiaton from scratch.

"look Naruto i..."he began again only to again be cut off, "Save it for somebody who cares" the blond said. "I'll serve the village as long as it helps my precious ones but if something happens then I'm gone. I don't care what it takes I will find a way to retire and leave this hell hole. It has been nothing but lies and false truths from day one and I am tired of it. I will find out what happened to my mom one way or another. If I have to become the Hokage to find here I will because it seems that you are of no help to me." He spat, "I trusted you and now I don't know if your going to lie to me again or tell me the truth but i'm not gonna take my chances Hokage-SAMA" and with that he left to go to his apartment. He had things to think about and a whole lot more to do team placements were in a week and he was going to get himself up to snuff by then.

He reached his home and quickly showered and went to bed. He had a long week ahead of him and with one last thought he fell asleep with the first smile he truly had in along time,' I'll find you…and then we'll be together again. No matter what I promise. I'll become as fierce as a maelstrom and will wipe out anything that gets in my way…I promise kaa-san' and with that he fell asleep dreaming of the day he would find out what happened to his mom, and either locate and save her or avenge her.

A/N

so yea sarutobi has pretty much thrown away any and all trust naruto had with him and right now the village. no he wont go killing everybody and kamikazing the place with exploding clones...well at least i dont think so. its funny the only thing keeping him in the village is a ramen bar and maybe a teacher.

will things get better? maybe. Worse? dont know i plan on introducing teams next chap so you know the deal my fellow fanfic readers. hit the little green button...you know you want to

also on a side note my pen name is also my friend id on ps network so any tekken or guitar/dj hero players its silentdragon2k8. green button that way\/


	3. Chapter 3 playing catch up

**Hey guys its Silentdragon once again. i know its been a minute but i have been busy. its the hollidays stuff happens, well anyways this is the new chapter i found a beta reader by the name of Goku90504 he's a really cool dude and came up with some great ideas for me. For those of you who voted you should know what naruto's element if not just read the chapter, i made it a little extra long this time around like seriously almost 9k thats a lot of typin. So without any further ado pleas read, enjoy, reveiw and let me know how you like it.**

Chapter 3 playing catch up

last time: Naruto learns some jutsu's, has a run in with a traitor, and finds out where some peoples real loyalties lie.

Beta:Goku90504

Summary: Naruto does some training, tries to make up for lost time, and looks at things from another angle.

* * *

Naruto had just woke up almost a full day after his argument with the third. He had since then been waiting to be discharged and released, so he had some time on his hands. He thought back to the previous day and frowned at the memory of getting his ass handed to him in the forest. It was a great eye opener and brought to light many things.

First, his skills as a ninja were severely lacking. He remembered how blatantly obvious his attacks were and not to mention him charging in like something from a manga with their extra loud battle cries. Yes, he had a serious eye opener and a couple of bruises to make the point stick.

Second, he could be seen from a mile in the darkness with his HEY OVER HERE!!!! SHOOT ME! SHOOT ME! Orange jumpsuit, oh the fun times leading ANBU and other various ninja on epic chases around the town. Now he realized that he could have completely avoided them with some not so obvious coloring, but on the bright side it didn't mean that he had to completely give up his favorite color just make sure it wouldn't get him killed.

Third, a shinobi's worst enemy is pride and along with that your mouth. Seriously, Mizuki basically killed himself by a combination of overestimating his abilities, underestimating his opponent when he thought he was down and getting caught yapping about how he was gonna get rid of the demon.

And finally, the basics are taught for a reason. That henged-bunshin really saved his ass out there. Techniques are B and A ranked for a reason. 'That pressure damage was stupidly hard and no matter how much chakra I pushed into it I just couldn't get it to work for me.' He mused while thinking over his attempts at the A ranked Fuuton jutsu. He also remembered the Kage Bunshin and smiled at the memory. Even though it was an A ranked jutsu it was only because of the chakra consumption. It was almost as if that was meant just for him, for he used the technique better than some jounin could even dream about. Still though he thought about the original bunshin and decided that he would try it after he got some better chakra control.

'So all-in-all I should probably try talking a lot less and looking to try and see what my opponent is gonna do next. Probably get some darker clothes and try focusing on the basics before I try to mess with anything big. I have a full week before the team assignments so I should probably use it to train and try to get some better equipment I lost a good chunk of my shuriken out in the forest.'

So with his mind set on improvement he waited for the nurse to come tell him he was all clear, all the while planning his next week out. "Ok I need some new clothes and weapons so I have to go to a weapons store. There's one near here but I don't know if the owner is a fox hater." He pondered that thought for a while until he finally remembered how he took the scroll without anyone knowing it was him.

"Gahh, I really am an idiot! God Naruto it's called the Henge you dolt! Ok I need to read some books and try to learn up on some Shinobi history before I get myself killed for real…." He continued his rant ranging from traps to technique purpose and learning how to apply those skills. The whole time he was cursing himself an amused nurse watched silently as the 'demon brat' apparently lost his mind and started to curse his own self as if he was trying to tell the people that him and the demon were different beings, but every body knew the truth it was just the fox trying to trick everybody into letting him in. hehehe stupid demon, we know all your tricks…

The sound of chuckling broke Naruto out of his thoughts and he directed his attention towards the source. The nurse noticed his turn of attention and decided to speak up.

"You are cleared to go, and the Hokage wanted to see you in his office as soon as you get out," and with that she turned and walked away leaving Naruto to change and leave.

While Naruto was making his way to the tower he noticed all the glares and cruel smirks when they saw that he was without a head band for the moment so the probably thought he wasn't allowed as a ninja. "Idiots…" he muttered under his breath, as he kept going not noticing the woman in a trench coat watching him with looks of curiosity.

When Naruto finally made his way to the outside of the office the sectary told him to just go on through and into the office seeing as the Hokage didn't have anymore meetings planned until later on that day. Naruto looked at the double doors and sighed, thinking about how the man he once looked up to not only lied to him his entire life but pretty much helped the villagers make his life hell by letting them constantly destroy his apartment and refuse to sell him goods while watching through his spy orb.

He walked into the office to see the aged Kage working on a pile of paperwork that grew a half an inch taller for every file he took out. Sarutobi heard the doors open and sighed while eyeballing the ever growing infestation of paper on his desk, but when he looked up and saw the pointed look that his once ball of sunshine was giving him his heart grew heavy. He knew that he had betrayed the blonde's trust and only hoped that he could one day make it up to him.

"Oh hello there Naruto-kun, how are you doing today?" Sarutobi greeted with a warm smile which faltered when he got a "fine Hokage-sama, you wanted to see me?" from Naruto instead of the usual smile and old-man comments. He sighed once again and looked at the young man before him before saying, "yes, please have a seat." "I'd rather stand thank you" once again resisting the urge to wince at the cold tone in his voice he proceeded to tell Naruto of his duties and everything he needed to get taken care of as far as papers and I.d. went. "Ok Naruto-kun, be sure to show up in two days to take your picture for your Shinobi I.D. card and at the academy in nine days for team assignments." Seeing the Hokage fold his hands on top of his desk and lean back Naruto bowed and was about to excuse himself when the third spoke up once more.

"Now that you are a ninja you are seen as an adult now so you'll have to take care of your expenses from now on. Here's your last check for food and expenses and this here is a check for the amount of a completed A-rank mission of exposing and eliminating a traitor and threat to Konoha it will be put on your record as well, congrats you completed an A-rank mission before you even became a genin. That's 50,000 ryu there so you should be set for a while. I wish you the best and I look forward to seeing you walk around with your new head band." He said with a smile as he handed the items over to a shocked Naruto. He figured he would get his own head-band and the whole ward of the state thing but getting credit for an A-rank mission and payment was too much for him and he couldn't help but smile at it. 'now all my plans for improvement just got 10x easier with money thrown into play' he mused on the inside while he tried to school his features to accept the items and with a "Hai, thank you Hokage-sama" he left to go make his transformation from loud idiot to a not so loud and not exactly-smart-but-knows-what-he's-doing-now Naruto.

* * *

Naruto left the office and stopped by to cash his checks with a grin at the cashier's shocked expression at the amount shown on the checks. So with his frog purse a.k.a gamma-chan practically bursting with money and the rest in some hidden pockets he made into his jacket he made his way towards what he heard was the best place to get your weapons. "The Iron Fang, sounds interesting enough" he thought out loud. He then went to an alley besides the store to henge himself to look like a blue haired teen with grey eyes and a scar from his cheekbone to his jaw. He checked to make sure his voice sounded different and walked into the shop.

When he first walked through the doors a middle aged man who was well built had an apron on with some smudges of soot in random places greeted him and turned his attention back to the catalogue on new metals and materials that he was reading, seeing that his disguise was holding up and working he went ahead and started to look at the Shinobi clothes that they had there. He finds some black Shinobi pants, a couple of mesh undershirts that were infused with chakra to be extra durable. Some longs-sleeved black shirts with orange tribal designs going down the sleeves, some black Shinobi sandals, and a pair of orange fingerless gloves with metal plates built into the gloves. Satisfied with his new wardrobe he picked out 4 more sets so he would have a total of 5 sets of clothes. He saw that he still had over 40,000 left so he decided to look around to try and find a weapon that will help define him in the future.

Naturally he went to look for some swords because no matter how much real life wasn't manga and anime he wanted a cool katana or something similar.

As he walked on he passed by a sign that warned about chakra usage in the area but he didn't pay attention to the sign. As he walked on he passed by some ninja wire that was wrapped up in spools that would constrict when chakra was used on them. He also passed by another warning sign but he had his eye on this black and red broad sword with what looked like a trigger on it. (Looks like the red queen sword from devil may cry 4) so in his excitement he passed by the warning sign without so much as a glance and proceeded towards the super cool kick ass sword. When he was about 20 feet from the display he suddenly felt a pull on his chakra and the next thing he knew he was on the ground wrapped up in a chain that was about an inch thick and looked to be about 13 feet long and had a 7 inch spike at the tip. "What the hell is this?" the blue haired teen yelped out in surprise as he felt the chain start snuggling him??? The store owner had been watching him ever since he dropped off the clothes and some kunai and shuriken and paid for them to be altered to his specifications in cash and go to look for weapons, so he had been hoping to rake in a good haul from the young shinobi became worried when he saw what he thought was a potential customer get attacked by the "cursed chain" and rushed over to help him. He was stopped dead in his tracks when the blue haired teen went poof and turned into the demon brat.

Knowing that the chain had a history of draining all of its previous owners of their chakra almost till the point of death he decided it would be a good way to try to get the demon killed so he settled on getting rid of both the demon and the cursed chain in one fell swoop, "Excuse me young man, that chain is attracted to chakra so you have to stop the output of chakra to get it off of you." The man told Naruto with an indifferent tone to his voice. Naruto looks up at the man as if asking why he couldn't help him and as if reading his mind the man continues. "Once the chain comes into contact with chakra it eats until it's full. After that it recognizes the person whose chakra was eaten as its owner and will quickly drain the chakra of anyone else it comes into contact with and use it to refill its owner's reserves. So if I touched it now it would probably drain me until I had none left. It's a peculiar weapon you have there."

Naruto looked torn, on one hand he wanted that cool sword but on the other more practical hand, he had a weapon that could probably aid in capturing and incapacitating enemies. Remembering his thoughts from the hospital he decided to go with it and get the chain that was now nuzzling his cheek. "Man this is gonna take some getting used to, so how much for this chakra leech here? I mean from what you said it sounds like I'm stuck with it either way." He asked while trying to reposition the chain to where he could move his arms and get up.

"The chain with the manual that came with it cost about 30,000 ryu. Nobody has ever tried to buy it because they were out of chakra before they made it to the counter so it's never been opened before. I heard it was one of a kind but I could never get rid of it so I'll give it to you for 15,000. Do we have a deal?" he asked excited at the aspect of getting rid of that customer killer and weakening the demon brat at the same time.

"Sure old man my name is Naruto. Do you happen to have anything on chakra control and some technique scrolls or where I can get some?" He said as he pulled the money out of his now regular sized gamma-chan. "the names Dustin by the way, and no I don't have any technique scrolls but I have some chakra control kits that come with genin to high chuunin control exercises and elemental testing papers. I can give them to you for about 5,000 ryu." "Ok thanks these will help a lot." He says while he pulls out an extra 5,000 ryu making his total be about 30,000 ryu with his weapons, clothes, and scrolls. "Hope you come back again for more equipment. You can probably get some techniques at the library." He said with a cheerful smile as he sealed them all into a storage scroll. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth he quickly replied "yea sure Dustin," as he took the storage seal. He left thinking about his next stop, the public library, mainly the shinobi part of said library.

* * *

"Hmm I spent 30,000 at the weapons store, so I still have 20,000 from the mission payment. I guess I can get a couple of technique scrolls and put the rest for rent."

While Naruto was making his way to the library he decided to take a stop by his apartment to put his new clothes and kits in a safe that he installed after his 9th birthday. The villagers decided that they were going to destroy anything they thought was valuable and only leave him with the trash so he put a safe under his bed beneath the floor panels. The apartment was basically deserted, he was the only person on his floor so he could afford to make some noise without any complaints and investigation. He put everything except the elemental testing papers in the safe and he also put enough for the next 2months for rent in the safe to make sure it would stay there and not end up in his stomach.

After dropping off the money and his purchases Naruto set off once again towards the library. Once he arrived there he made his way to the genin shinobi section and was amazed at what they had available. They had books on chakra control, medical knowledge such as human anatomy and poisons, and it even had some minor jutsu from D to mid Crank techniques. He found the **Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu** mixed in with the Cranks and immediately grabbed it thinking about his success with the **Shadow Clone**. Naruto realized that he wouldn't have enough time to go through all of the scrolls by himself so he made 20 clones and sent 6 to go get some techniques that would be useful not just flashy, he sent the rest to read up on history, tactics, human anatomy and anything that deals with chains or ropes.

About 10 minutes later his clones started showing up one by one. The first clone came back 2 minutes after he sent them off originally to find out what element they were so he took out the elemental paper and channeled some chakra into it. The card was lit up with blue for about 3 seconds before it split down the middle and started to crumple around the edges. Having read the instructions at his apartment he knew that he had a strong wind affinity and was going to develop a lightning affinity with some work so he decided to try 2 wind techniques: **Fuuton: great breakthrough **and** Fuuton: drilling air bullet** 2 lightning techniques: **Raiton: shocking needle **and **Raiton:** **Shock**, as well as 2 non-elemental Kanashibari no jutsu and Shunshin no jutsu. He sent the clones to work on memorizing the seals, effects, and any other possible notes about the jutsu and told them to dispel one every 2 minutes. The other clones were busy reading scrolls on history and any other school subjects he missed out on with strict instructions to dispel one every five minutes between when they were all done.

With his clones at the library he decided to run a couple of laps around Konoha before starting on his chakra control exercises.

It was 2 full hours before the last clone dispelled itself, it had found a scroll on exotic weapons and it had a section on battle chains and had some explanations of some styles and attack techniques for various battle chains. He read about a particularly nasty assassination type chain that was actually full of blades commonly known as the dagger-tail. The user could whip grab and trap their enemies with the chain and with the use of the spike on his own chain he could possibly recreate some of those tactics. He then realized he was going to have to get his strength up quickly if he wanted to actually wield his new weapon right. Although it was unintended he realized just how perfect the chain would be for him. Even though he didn't have a chain full of blades like the dagger tail he was a wind element and it is known as the best battle element due to its ability to sharpen objects to almost impossible degrees and stay invisible to the naked eye.

Now that he had his main goals for the day completed he figured he was off to a good start, he had a new weapon new clothes and was already working on his control by floating leaves on his forehead. He then decided to go to a training ground to work on some of the control exercises with the help of some Kage bunshin.

Naruto made his way to an unused training ground near the forest of death so he decided to use it for the time being and summoned around 50 Kage bunshin and told them to go start floating leaves. Within the hour all the clones had it down to some degree so he had them do kunai balancing on his fingers while he worked out in the stream. He figured that since the clones only transfer back memories then it wouldn't be very productive wasting time on physical stuff with clones and while he do mental jobs and vise versa. So only the original did physical excursive while the clones did anything from spar to chakra control.

While the clones did kunai and leaf balancing the original was in the stream running against the current to help build strength and speed. After 100 sprints up the stream he did 100 push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and squats and finished off with some stretches and a light jog around the area.

At the end of his first day of training Naruto had managed with the help of 50 clones and 2 hours to each clone master the leaf balancing and get kunai balancing down to almost no concentration needed. So with a new plan to learn the non elemental jutsu he went home to get a good nights sleep, he had a long day ahead of him.

The next morning Naruto decided to put on his old clothes one last time and wrap his chain around his waist like a belt. He had woken up early around 4a.m. due to his excitement so he spent a couple of hours that morning reading up on different chakra control techniques and figured that tree climbing was his best bet. The book stated to not try elemental manipulation until he could easily walk on water so that was out of the question. He also wanted to learn the shunshin, kanashibari, and shuriken shadow clone jutsus so he split them up among 90 shadow clones and sent them deep into the forest where they were lest likely to be watched. He also made another 50 clones to split up find a tree and work on climbing them. "Ok guys listen up, the guide book said it would be easier to lay down on your back put your feet on the tree and try to find the amount that keeps you on the tree the best. After you have figured out how much to pump start walking." With their instructions the clones went into another forested part away from the jutsu area so as to not accidentally get targeted and dispelled prematurely.

While his clones were away Naruto took the time to really get to know his weapon. It seemed to be somewhat sentient and could pick up on his emotions because it started to wrap tighter, not an uncomfortable tight but like a I'm right here kinda feel. Naruto was amazed to find out that he truly was the only person with that kind of weapon because it was forged by the same man who forged the legendary ten-ken of the seven shinobi swordsmen.

True to his word the battle chain could indeed drain its opponent's chakra and use it to refill his reserves. He also found out that with some chakra his chain could extend and retract its size so the size of a regular belt. After his warm ups he took to the stream and added weight to it by holding I decent sized bolder with him to add more resistance. 2 hours later we find Naruto checking on his jutsu progress while twirling his chain experimentally. He then shot it at a tree and watched amazed as the spike tore right through the trunk. He finished picking his jaw up off the ground when one of his clones addressed him. "Um hey boss, we have the shuriken shadow clone down and we can make 5 into 100 and we are making steady progress in the kanashibari jutsu. We are currently experimenting on wild animals that we see while working on it, the jutsu seems to send scary images through eye contact so we thought of using people's rational fear against them. By imagining the Kyuubi and using that image in the jutsu progress began to grow by heaps and bounds. The shunshin was having some major problems though. The clones always ended up overshooting the jutsu and hitting either each other or surrounding trees." The representative clone explained as he showed the groups of clones. Naruto left them stating that he would be back in a couple of hours to check up on progress some more.

After visiting his clones Naruto decided to get some practice in with his chain so he started setting up targets and tried hitting the targets by shooting the chain into them from a distance. It took the better part of a hour but he finally got the principal of the technique down and was now 80% from 50 yards away. He suspected it had something to do with the chain itself because he saw it on many occasion bending to go to the point that he concentrated all of his focus to. He then tried shooting it out to grab onto things. That was tricky because he had to wrap around a certain area otherwise the victim would be able to escape the chain.

After he got a feel for his new battle chain he summoned up 10 clones and told them to space themselves out and hide, he then told them to target him with kunai and shuriken while he worked on his agility and accuracy. So for the next hour Naruto increased his senses by turning himself into a human pin-cushion, not that it mattered to him 'better on his own terms than out on the battle field when the mission is at stake.' He thought as he pulled a shuriken out of his shoulder only to watch as the wound closed up on its own.

After three hours of self torture ranging from target practice, playing dodge the kunai and ninja tag with his chain he went to check on his clones. His first stop was the chakra control group which he found running up trees with varying heights from 20 to 35 meters into the trees. Naruto refreshed all of the clones and told the new ones to keep up the good work. He left the clone's on that note and went to check on the jutsu progress. He was happy to note that his clones had finally figured out how to work the shunshin and were now having races around the forest to increase their proficiency with the teleportation jutsu. The clones could now kill small animals with their kanashibari jutsu. It was cruel but he made the best of the situation and had them clean some rabbits for lunch. Like he expected the shuriken shadow clone was just natural for him and the clones were coming up with combinations and traps by cornering a clone and peppering it with shuriken to have it either replace itself with a log or an exploding clone that went off when a clone got too close after it 'died', overall he was making excellent progress and he figured he would be able to make up for his wasted time in the academy with his training regimen.

His thoughts were interrupted when his stomach made its presence known. He had been working for almost 6 hours and he didn't eat much that morning and remembered that he needed to go get some groceries or he would be living off of rabbits and ramen for a while. So with that in mind he left to go find his clones that were preparing the rabbit for some lunch and then went to go to his apartment to pick up some money and get a quick shower in.

'I wonder if they will recognize me now' he thought as he showered and put on his new clothes for the first official time. He knew he was easy to spot in his orange jumpsuit so maybe they wouldn't recognize him and let him get some actual food. He remembered what his clones read about eating proper food and he was willing to try it. He was still going to get ramen of course, just not all ramen.

So Naruto made his way to the grocery store that was in the middle of town and as he walked he noticed that some of the female population were looking at him the same way he looked at a new ramen flavor, it was slightly unnerving for the blond. He was used to the mean and dirty looks from the villagers and the occasional "die demon" rants from the populace and he could usually just shrug them off, but when they started looking at him like he was a piece of meat he didn't know what to do, it was like a bucket of ice water was poured down his back with all the chills he started feeling. Not knowing what to do anymore he looked down and took off at a slight jog to hurry along the way.

Within minutes he made it to the grocery store, he had devised a list of what he needed and decided to keep things simple and just use his headband as a bandanna to cover up some of his hair. Using one of his old black shirts he had made a makeshift bandanna to cover up most of his spiky blond hair so he simply tied the headband around it to keep it all in place. So grabbing his list he went into the store and for the first time he just looked like a regular shinobi instead of the village demon in bright orange.

Naruto had managed to get almost everything on his list when all of a sudden he bumped into someone and knocked them over. He looked up and flinched, because of all the people he could've run into it had to be one of the two people that were actually louder than him Ino Yamanaka, and she was one of his classmates so she would probably recognize him once she got a good look at his face. She was classified as the top kunoichi but at the same time she was a Sauske fan-girl. Seriously what they see in the duck-butt haired bastard he would never know. What he did know, on the other hand, was that if she recognized him then all of his planning would have been for naught as her loud voice would easily be heard by half the village populace.

"Umm I'm sorry, please excuse me" Naruto tried in the most subdued polite voice he could manage. "I wasn't looking where I was going, here let me help you up" as he helped her up before he started to turn to pick up the spilt items. Ino had been looking at him since they bumped into each other. She had been having thoughts ranging from "who is this hottie and where did he come from," to, "what the hell did I hit, a wall?" but all of those thoughts went out the window when she noticed the blue eyes and the whisker marks.

"Naruto?!!? She shouted, "What the hell are you doing dressed as a shinobi? You failed the academy you Baka!" she started to rant on about a good day being sullied by the blonds presence in the store, all the while Naruto was looking like a deer caught in some head lights. He was about to tell Ino to bring it down a couple of notches when someone decided to throw a can at the back of his head. "what are you doing here you demon scum, get out now" the unknown assailant was soon joined by others as they all realized what the blond heiress was shouting about the demon being in their store. Before he knew it he was getting chased out of the store, and with one last sad disappointed look directed towards Ino who was reeling at the sight of the villager's treatment for the blond. Naruto caught her eye before he shunshined out of the store, his groceries and list long forgotten.

With Ino…

She had been trying to figure out why the villagers were so hostile towards Naruto, I mean sure he pulled some pranks every now and then but that didn't deserve the mob that was forming around him. And then there was that look, he looked almost betrayed when he had caught her eye, it was as if he had been hoping she wouldn't rat him out, when they bumped into each other he had been so polite and quiet but she was screeching like a certain pink haired banshee.

'I wonder what that was all about, all he was doing was trying to get some food that's normal isn't it?' she thought as she started gathering her things. It was then that she noticed the list of stuff he had left before he disappeared. So being the nice person that she is, she decided to try to make it up to the blond and gathered everything on his list as well as everything she was going to pick up for herself and proceeded to buy it all. She would take it to him and see why everybody hated the blond, for she was Ino Yamanaka and she was always up on the intake of what was going on in the village, or so she thought. Now all she had to do was find where he lived…..

* * *

With Naruto…

He had just made it to his apartment relatively unscathed except for the tender spot on the back of his head where that can connected. "I swear it's like they have mobs ready on hand when it comes to me" he cursed out loud as he felt the spot to make sure he wasn't bleeding.

He had almost made it out of the store without any incident but he just had to not be aware of his surroundings. He would have to work on that some more. Now he had no food just some instant ramen that he had been saving for later. 'Hopefully they won't remember what I was wearing, it would suck sooo much if they already spread the word that the 'demon' has some new clothes.' He thought as he started to heat up some water for his noodles. Naruto loved the noodles but he was so close to actually being able to eat what everyone else ate it just ruined his appetite. He finished his noodles and sat down to read up on his first elemental jutsu **Fuuton: great breakthrough, **it was a jutsu that didn't use too much elemental manipulation so he figured that he would try it the after his picture the next day. So he spent the next hour or so familiarizing himself with the jutsu and thinking of ways he could use it to better suit him. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a knock on his door. He sighed and went to answer the door and was greeted with the sight of a red faced Ino who looked as if she had been running a marathon.

* * *

With Ino…

She had been running around trying to find out where the blond stayed. She thought about everything that she knew about him and remembered that he loved ramen especially from Ichiraku, so she went by in hopes of running into him or finding out where he lived. The only problem with that plan was that it was halfway across the village and she had all of those bags with her.

Ino sighed and stopped to catch her breath as she arrived at the ramen stand. When she arrived there she noticed that the stand was empty getting ready for the lunch rush so she figured it would be the best time to ask about their #1 customer.

"Um hello miss, I'm sorry but we are closed for the moment we will be open in about 20 minutes, is there anything else I can help you with?" asked Ayame the owner's daughter. She looked to be about 17 with brown hair and a warm smile on her face.

"Oh hello miss, my name is Ino, I am a classmate of Naruto's and I was trying to find him. I bumped into him at the market and then the villagers ran him off so he left all of his groceries in his hurry. I was trying to find his house because I paid for his stuff and I wanted to drop it all off and find out why the villagers hated him so much, I mean how much harm can a couple of pranks do to cause entire mobs to try to jump him?" explained Ino who was genuinely confused as to why he was hated so much.

When Ayame heard about what happened she frowned as she thought about the boy that she started to see as a little brother. All he really wanted now was to be left alone and that was understandable seeing as he had been having a pretty rough couple of days as of late. She took pity upon the girl and told her where his apartment was but she made it known that if anything happened to her little brother she was going to have to deal with her and her father. So with new directions to the blonds apartment she frowned as she saw that he lived across town of all places, so once again she grabbed the large bags and took off at a sprint, years of shopping helped her juggle the bags while running in hopes for sales. She arrived at the apartment complex and went to the number on the sheet that she was given at the ramen stand. She noticed that most of the other apartments on the floor were unused and knocked on the door to his apartment.

* * *

At the apartment…

Naruto had just opened the door to be greeted with a red faced Ino who had obviously been running. He sighed and let her in while asking what she was doing here. "I'm here because you left all of your stuff at the store earlier. What was that all about anyway, you didn't pull another prank did you?" Ino replied in exasperation, she was exhausted from running around the village, she seriously needed to work on her stamina some more and less on her looks. Naruto looked down when she asked about the mob at the store and mumbled something about stupid idiots in the village. "One of my parents did something when I was born and the idiot villagers hate me for it because they're dead." Was all he said as he turned and noticed the bags in her hands. "Uh Ino what's with the bags?" he asked looking at the large bags in her arms. "Oh these are yours you left them at the market when you left. How exactly did you do that anyway, and why are you wearing a head band those are only for graduates." She demanded looking at the leaf symbol on his head.

"Oh I took a different exam. I can't make regular bunshin because I just have too much chakra to do it so they gave me a stealth test, and I just used a jutsu I learned." He explained leaving out everything about the fox and the scroll. At this Ino brightened up and congratulated him. She really wasn't that bad when she wasn't around Sakura or thinking about Sauske.

Naruto thanked Ino for bringing him his groceries, in truth he didn't know what to do it was the first time somebody had actually done something like that for him. He asked how he could repay Ino for it and after remembering carrying around his bags and paying for everything she started smirking thinking of revenge. "Oh I know, you can take me shopping after team assignments!" she replied a little too cheerfully. Naruto gulped and hesitantly agreed. Poor gamma-chan was going to be on a diet for a while. Ino then dropped off his bags and told him that she was looking forward to going shopping with him and took off to go home.

Naruto smiled as he put away the groceries that Ino had picked out for him, maybe things weren't going to be as bad as he thought. He decided to turn in early so he could get his pictures and papers taken care of early that morning.

The next day Naruto woke up early and thought about how easily he was recognized with his whisker marks so in order to remedy that problem he decided to use some of the material from his old jumpsuits and old shirts to make a makeshift black and orange scarf to cover his whiskered cheeks. Satisfied with his outfit he finished his morning ritual and left to get all of his paperwork taken care of.

2 hours later Naruto had finally finished everything and was glad to see that nobody knew it was him walking down the street. He decided that since he had 6 days left before team placements he would spend the whole time training in hopes of not running into anybody else and ruin his good mood. So he headed to his apartment so he could pack all of the necessary things ration bars, water, some camping gear, a spare clothes, and all of his training gear. And set off to training ground #43. Because nobody ever used it much so he was almost guaranteed privacy.

His first 3 days in the forest went with out incident. He managed to get the great breakthrough and was able to stand somewhat on some water. It was still hard to do anything but stand but he was getting better at it. He decided to try the leaf cutting excursive that was mentioned in the beginner elemental manipulation section and was happy to see that he was making it a quarter of the way there after a couple of hours with 100 clones dedicated to the task. On the third day in the forest he ran into a woman with purple hair that wore a trench coat fishnet and a mini skirt. He remembered almost dying from blood-loss alone when she landed in front of him while on her way to training ground #44. After she realized he was staring she decided to tease him a little bit and then initiated a game of cat and mouse with the mouse dodging hundreds of dango skewers that were chakra reinforced. After she pinned him down she noticed his clones and asked what they were doing. He then told her about his elemental affinities and how he wanted to be able to use the element to increase his weapons. He didn't tell her about his chain though, he needed something to catch people by surprise. She then told him that the only known wind user in the village was the Hokage's son Asuma. She then told him where he could find him and left to go to the forest.(needs something more but I have nothing anything you can come up with is very much appreciated)

Naruto then sent a henged clone to seek out some advice from the wind user. He found him at a dango shop getting ready to leave when Naruto ran up to him. "Hello Asuma-san I heard that you were a wind user and I was wanting to know if you had any tips for a beginner like me." He asked hopeful that the bearded jounin would help him. Asuma was pretty young but you could easily tell some similarities between him and his father the third. They both had beards and loved to smoke. Asuma wore the standard jounin attire with a sash with the fire lord's emblem hanging over his hip. He thought about it for a second and agreed. He led Naruto to a training ground and demonstrated why wind was the most powerful element for weapons when he enhanced his trench knifes with wind chakra and threw it at a boulder. The trench knife tore through the boulder and proceeded to go through 3 trees before it finally stopped. He then told him to think of wind as two blades that were sharpened like scissors. When they rubbed against each other they create blades that will cut through almost anything. With that advice he left the henged Naruto clone there to work on things on his own. About 5 minutes after Asuma left the clone dispelled itself letting all the other Naruto's know how to get the exercise down.

3 days later Naruto had progressed tremendously with the help of Asuma's words. His clones managed to cut through the leafs 4 hours later and have been trying to come up with ways to further improve themselves. They decided to try making a taijutsu style that was somewhat similar to the gentle fist but instead used wind based chakra to cut the opponent with palm strikes to various areas. Naruto expanded on the leaf cutting exercise and started using it to cut down small trees by the 6th day in the forest. It took Naruto three tries but he was able to use chakra alone to cut through a tree with a 1foot trunk. He then started enhancing his chain with wind chakra much to its pleasure. It seemed to love his chakra and could rival the exotic dagger-tails when he enhanced it with wind chakra. He decided that the technique was too lethal to use on familiars and in spars so he would keep it a secret until he needed it.

While his clones did all of this Naruto kept up his work with his physical needs. He had gotten much faster and was soon to fast for the stream so he moved on to find a river with a stronger current. When he first jumped into it he was slammed into a boulder and thrashed by the raging waters. Naruto was stuck against the boulder for the better part of an hour before he was finally able to push off of the rock and regain his footing with the tree walking exercises. He started off barely walking against the current but as the days went by he soon found himself able to run upstream for what felt like a mile. The river itself was only 500 feet long and ended at a lake but the resistance slowed him down so much that the first time it took almost 3 hours to make it up to the end. He continued to run up the stream and allowing him to be brought back with the current until he got fast enough to do it in half an hour. That along with his other physical workouts and agility training helped the blond to grow stronger than he had been in his life. He truly felt like he could be a shinobi now.

Naruto had one more day until the team assignments and decided to take it easy that day and review everything he went over the past eight days. He had gotten a new weapon, some cool techniques, a possible new friend, and learned more than he dad 6 years in the academy in 6 days out in the forest. Overall he made good in the past 2 weeks and wasn't all that mad about the Kyuubi and Yondaime anymore. He still hated them both but he wasn't going to run around looking like he had a stick the size of the Hokage monument up his ass. So he decided to go to his apartment, take an extra long shower, cook himself something nice that he read in a cook book at the library, and think of some of the uses for the skills that he had obtained.

The next day Naruto woke up late so he only had 40minutes to get ready and go to the academy for his team assignment. He really wanted to get there early so as to not cause a scene but it seemed that fate wasn't on his side today. (Somewhere in the elemental nations Neji Hyuga suddenly feels like smirking and says "hmm it seems that someone has accepted that fate is not to be trifled with") after Naruto rushes through his morning ritual he puts on his new clothes wraps his scarf around his whisker marks puts his chain on like a belt, grabs some kunai and shuriken, and leaves via shunshin.

* * *

At the Academy...

It was a noisy day at the academy, like seriously noisy it was the last day for one of the only classes with an heir from all of the prominent clans of Konoha. It had the last loyal Uchiha, a Yamanaka, a Nara, the Akemichi, Inuzuka, Hyuga, and Abumane clan's heirs as well. It was probably the most promising group of graduates for decades. So there was a lot of buzz about the group of prodigies graduating at the same time, surely things would make a turn for the better with so much talent graduating.

There was so much going on that Naruto was able to slip in and head to the back of the class and wait next to Shikamaru the lazy genius with an IQ of over 200. Like all Nara's he found paying attention and studying in class too troublesome and just slept giving him over all bad grades. He was the best shougi player Naruto had ever met and figured he would grow up to be a tactician for the village. Things went quietly until Iruka came in and shut the class up with his Demon head jutsu. He then gave a boring speech about the responsibilities they now faced and then proceeded to call off teams. Naruto tuned out all of the teams until he heard a particular one. "Team 7…Uchiha Sauske, Haruno Sakura, and Akemichi Chouji, instructor Hatakke Kakashi." Iruka announced he was about to continue when he was almost deafened by a high pitched squeal courtesy of the president of the Sauske fan-club Sakura, who was going on about how love prevailed and tried to rub it in Ino's face when she was told to sit down and act her age and not her shoe size. He then announced team 8 which was Hyuga Hinata, Abumane Shino, and Nara Shikamaru under Yuhi Kurenai. Iruka paused to see if there would be any more interruptions and continued stating that team 9 was still in circulation. He then got to team 10 and stated "team 10 Uzumaki Naruto, Inuzuka Kiba, and Yamanaka Ino under Sarutobi Asuma. He then told the them that the teachers would arrive to pick them up after lunch so they were free to go.

Most of the teams went their separate ways but Kiba decided to see why the dead last was on his team. He was on his way there when Ino beat him to the punch. "He graduated by doing a stealth mission because he had too much chakra for the academy bunshin." Kiba sat there looking off wondering if it was the truth so he looked to Iruka who just nodded and went and sat down next to his team. Kiba was the first to break the silence and spoke to Naruto about his clothes. "I see you got rid of that orange jumpsuit what happened you think new clothes will make you less of a dobe?" he asked trying to figure out why this Naruto was so different. "I had a sudden change in perspective on everything I thought I once knew dog-boy. The world is harsh and people do stupid things when they are scared. Being a ninja isn't all about saving the day and rescuing princesses. Its real and you would do well to learn that." He replied coldly, he really didn't like thinking about what happened when he graduated, and hated even more to be called dead last. He was about to walk off when he felt a shunshin appear behind him revealing their sensei Sarutobi Asuma. "Are you team 10?" he asked as they all nodded. He then smiled and told them to meet him at the barbecue place that was about 20 minutes away and left with a shunshin. Kiba and Ino were about to take of and go their separate ways when they both felt hands on their shoulders. They saw Naruto and heard him say "trust me on this" before they all left with a shunshin that was covered by a small gust of wind instead of the usual leaves. Asuma was surprised when 5minutes after he got there his team showed up in a wind shunshin of all things. He then smiled to himself, 'yes this team will be interesting to say the least.' as they all sat down around their sensei.

* * *

AN// well thats that i hope you liked it i spent over 12 str8 next chapter will be team meets sensei and genin tests. Happy hollidays from and Goku until next time Ja!

pleas reveiw. You kno the green bar at the bottom in the middle


	4. team test and promises kept

Yo silentdragon here and first of all (gets on knees and bows head to the floor) i am verry sorry about the delay things at school just swamped me and since it had been so long it took a while to get back into the groove of writing. but here is the chapter I decided to keep them around the 5k mark from now on because just the thought of anything else is just too much, there will be some exceptions but for the most part that will be the limit range. i would like to thank my beta goku of course and i hope you enjoy it.

R&R

i dont own of course...

* * *

Team 10 sat in the restaurant in anticipated silence. It seemed like the genin were anxious of what was to happen next would they start doing missions and saving rich dynamos or would they start training and learning new jutsu. They were excited that the son of the 3rd hokage was to be their sensei and even more so at the fact that he was known as one of the strongest jounin of the leaf so caught up in their own personal reveries they were caught completely off guard when Asuma spoke up and started to introduce himself and by the time they actually paid attention they only caught him saying that he wanted them to succeed as a team and for him to eventually retire and have a family.

When Asuma told Ino to introduce herself she was caught completely off guard as she didn't know that he was already finished.

"My name is of course Ino Yamanaka I like cherry tomatoes and pudding, shopping, and purple. I LOVE SAUSKE-KUN!" she but screamed," I dislike forehead and I hate sashimi...ugh. I want to be a great ninja and to marry Sauske-kun and retire and help him revive the Uchiha clan" she said with a slight nose-bleed at the end.

By the time she was done Kiba and Naruto looked sick and Asuma was mildly disturbed by her forwardness, it was obvious that she wasn't shy about what she wanted and would given her attitude, would do what it takes to get what she wanted as well.

"I work at my families' flower shop part time and I use my clan jutsu to switch minds with my opponent, and look into their memories with training," she said and was about to continue when Kiba asked her a question with a rare air of seriousness around him.

"So you basically kidnap them, steal their bodies, and thoroughly mind rape your enemies?" he asked with a raised brow which had Naruto stop eating, and Asuma to put up his almost lit cigarette and see how the situation turned out.

"Umm…"

"Well do you?"

"Well you see its kinda…"

"I knew it your clan is made up of a bunch of kidnapers, impersonators and rapist!"

"Hey take that back! At least my clan doesn't go around sniffing each others butts!"

Kiba had the decency to blush at the accusation he had sniffed her but when they first met at a park when they were 4 and ever since that day Ino and Kiba had been at each others throats, "Hey! That only happened once and we were four sheesh…and at least I don't go around stalking and eye-raping Sauske every waking moment of my existence!"

At this point Ino blushed it was true she spent most of their free time stalking Sauske and sometimes would daydream in class about 'repopulating the clan' with him. This continued on for several minutes until both parties were too red-faced and out of breath to continue. During the whole process Asuma's face went from worry to stoic to mirth as he witnessed the interactions between his team. Asuma decided to avoid further embarrassment of Ino by moving on to Kiba who gladly started after snatching up a piece of bar-b-que.

"My name is Kiba Inuzuka, I like my best bud here Akamaru I like going on walks wit Akamaru and training, I dislike loud noises and stuck up pricks who think they are better than everyone, I hate cats and fleas…" he trailed off thinking of the evil little demons.

Kiba continued on to describe how he fought alongside Akamaru and used collaboration jutsu such as the JuuJuin no Jutsu and that he wanted to be a part of the hunter nin division of ANBU and be clan head when he got older.

"ok Naruto why don't you bring us to a close so we can get down to business," which got a nod in agreement as he settled himself and gathered his thoughts.

"Hmm...my name is Naruto, I know I like ramen and my new weapon and…umm…I don't know anymore…I dislike liars, cheats and people who withhold information for their own personal gain. I really don't know what my dream is anymore, sorry." And with that he sat down and began to think while Ino and Kiba were left speechless, here was the dead last who always sprouted about loving Sakura-chan, and being hokage not acting the way he usually did. It was horrifying to them and they would have thought he was an imposter if it had not been for the comment on ramen first. They began to realize that they really didn't know the blonde as much as they thought they did.

Seeing the mood of his team once again fluctuate Asuma decided to lower the boom on his fresh genin the real graduation exam.

'Hmm seeing as I have to pass them anyway I might as well have some fun with this test hehehe' he thought with a dark chuckle. "Ok team pay attention" he suddenly barked causing the genin to snap up and get into an attentive stance. "You may have passed the academy graduation exam but now its time to face the real exam. Seeing as I really don't feel like dragging this out we are going to do ours today, you are going to complete a mission in the allotted time while each of you have one leg tied up to the other."

The three genin balked at the sound of the test but then Kiba reassured them with his loud words of them being able to do it no problem. So seeing as there was no point in waiting any more they went and headed to the hokage tower to get their mission.

* * *

"Team 10 reporting for their first mission please," announced Asuma surprising the attendant, it was rare for a fresh genin team to be getting missions not even 2 hours after being put together. Quickly getting over the shock the attendant handed over the only available mission…the Tora retrieval mission otherwise known as the 'B-ranked' D-class mission that has plagued genin teams since the start of Konoha. It was true the ever illusive Tora was the descendant of the famous Raiju, a demon of lightning that would leap from tree to tree while agitated. That cat had even been chased around by Sarutobi's genin team and was still lively enough to give fresh genin a run for their money. Normally this wouldn't be all that bad but add in the time limit and being tethered to each other was just asking for chaos and disaster.

The mission was going horribly they had one leg tied to the someone else's with Kiba and Naruto on the outsides. The team was composed of 3 natural born leaders and overall assertive people so they spent 20 minutes arguing over who would lead the mission.

"I think I should be the leader since I am the smartest one here" Ino began only to be cut off by a snort by Kiba who believed he should be the alpha of the team.

"yea right your about as smart as the other blondie here Ino, I should be the leader its obvious considering the other options."

"what did you say mutt boy?" she asked through gritted teeth, how dare that flea infested mutt compare her to the dead last. While Ino and Kiba had begun their shouting match Naruto's eye had started to twitch with each passing insult and finally after 10 minutes of back and forth snipes at each other the spiky haired blonde snapped.

"Why don't you both shut up before you run our target off!"

Ino and Kiba were startled by the outburst they had been so immersed in tearing at each other to remember about the mission and their unusually quiet teammate.

"ok then Naruto do you have any bright ideas" Ino asked voice dripping with fake interest.

"yea since we are obviously too stupid and are endangering the mission what do you suggest oh pint sized blonde one?" Kiba intoned with sarcasm dripping off of each syllable coming out of his mouth.

"well since you asked so nicely, yes I do. We should start by checking where the objective was last spotted and head in that direction and then see if we can find its scent Kiba that way we would be able to track it easier while Ino, you use your clan jutsu on a bird and search from the sky. Once we locate it we will go from there." Ino and Kiba were once again floored at how though his plan was all they were thinking of were along the lines of running yelling out its name and asking people but it seemed like once again Naruto proved that he wasn't the dead last everyone thought he was.

They quickly agreed to the plan and set off towards the park on the east part of the village because that was the most recent area it was seen around, they found 2 different scents of cat but only one smelled like the fire lords wife so the went off tracking the scent. At the same time Ino had used her Shintenshin no jutsu to take over a hawk that was resting in tree not too far from their location. Since they were all tied up it was awkward keeping Ino's body and walking while tied up to each other but they managed.

They had spotted Tora after 35 minutes of looking and all strategy went out the window, Akamaru growled at the cat and immediately started chasing it. Ino had returned to her body and was now yelling at Kiba to control his partner. The situation was looking pretty bleak, they had to complete the test in 2 hours so they only had a little over an hour and a half.

The test was to gauge their teamwork and also to see how they react to situations where they had to completely rely on each other. It was a genius set up but almost completely impossible for someone who hadn't worked together like that before. So far they had fallen into a river, clothes lined each other on a pole and in one unlucky case messed up the timing when jumping over a fence which resulted in a rather painful landing for Kiba and Naruto and that had slowed them down considerably. After finally getting Akamaru under control they decided to try to use a different tactic, Naruto would use his Kage-bunshin to heard Tora into an alleyway where it couldn't escape, while the three of them would position themselves to be prepared to jump the evil little demon.

The results were comical at best all three had faced the wrath of Tora and their clothes weren't fortunate enough to escape the enraged felines claws. Ino's were by far the worst and when the front of her top revealing several long slashes and some personal area's a blushing Naruto handed her his jacket to cover up as she outright refused to smell like dog the rest of the day.

They only had 45 minutes left and they once again tracked down their elusive target. They had finally spotted Tora stalking around a fisherman's stand in the market district and with some quick thinking Kiba told Akamaru to circle around and sneak up on the cat while they got her from the front. Not wanting to wind up victim to the crazed felines claws once again Naruto quickly unwound his chain from around his waist and used it to encircle the cat and drain it of its energy till it went to sleep. To Kiba and Ino it looked like he had used his chain as a lasso and caught the cat in a sleeper hold until it went to sleep, but they were still a bit wary of the deranged feline. 4 and a half minutes later they finally deemed it safe enough to check and see if the cat was subdued and sure enough Tora was laying there blissfully unaware of the world.

The team was about to celebrate when they remembered that they still had to return the cat before the time limit expired or they would fail their sensei's test. Seeing as they only had 20 minutes left they hurried as fast as three fresh genin with one leg tied to each other could run. It had taken them about 15 minutes to get to the tower with all the traffic and their obvious disadvantages and 4 minutes to wait until they were due to be seen, it was easier than when they first started due to finally getting used to working together for tasks such as running and jumping although it helped that the boys let lead and kept up pace the avoid another untimely meeting of their family jewels to the fence or worse.

They got into the hall and hurried to the fire lords wife to hand her cat when a timer went off right before she could grab the cat. All three of them deflated when they realized that they had failed the test and turned with their heads down ready to walk out of the room only to bump into their smiling sensei and an equally smiling 3rd hokage . "Congratulations team 10 you passed! You are now official ninja of Konoha"

The members of team 10 sat there with shocked expressions on their face, they had just failed their sensei's test but here he was telling them that they passed and would be a team and stay ninja. Ino was the first to regain herself and asked what was going on throughout the rest of her teams mind "what are you talking about sensei? You told us that in order to pass we had to complete the mission in the allotted time while tied to each other." "You are right Ino that indeed was the test but can any of you tell me the true meaning of all this?"

After a couple of minutes of contemplation Kiba spoke up, "its about team work and working together right sensei?" to which he was answered with a smile and a nod. Asuma then went on to explain that by working together while tied to each other and even catching that evil little hell spawn they had more than proved to be ready enough to train for real and become a truly functioning and cohesive unit of ninja. "But what about the mission we failed it?" asked a worried Naruto, to which Ino just sighed and spelled it out to him. "the mission didn't matter baka, it was all about working together as a team to complete the mission. We passed our test because we worked as a team." Naruto was a bit confused but he nodded his head and went along with it anyway. He thought that as a ninja the mission came first but this test was a direct contradiction to those beliefs so he just went along with it, he would figure out later.

"Ok I want you all to meet me at training ground 12 at 8 o'clock sharp with all your equipment ready to train, any questions? No? ok good dismissed," and with that he disappeared in a plume of smoke leaving the semi shocked teens to do as they pleased, most likely go home ant tell their family and friends about their tests and how they passed it. He left forgetting that he had tied them up with reinforced binding rope that only he and the hokage could get off. Kiba was the first to find out as he quickly jumped into the air only to meet resistance which ultimately ended with all three of them sprawled on the floor in an undignified heap which caused the elder Sarutobi to chuckle as he quickly undid the bonds. Happy to be free Kiba jumped into the air and ushered a hasty goodbye and ran off towards his clan compound to inform them of the good news.

* * *

Naruto was about to make his way out but stopped when Ino cleared her throat as if waiting for something, it took a few seconds but he finally remembered that he had promised to take her out shopping and now remembering her ruined cloths gulped as this was likely going to end whatever money his poor gamma-chan had left. "You aren't forgetting that you promised to take me shopping are you Naruto?" she asked with that just too sweet tone, sensing danger he quickly shook his head and hastily responded lest he wind up a smear on the floor. "Uh no Ino I was just hurrying to pick up some money I'm running a little low and I knew you wouldn't want to go window shopping. Little did he know that was exactly what she planned on doing until he uttered that last sentence, and with a speed only seen by Gai she snatched up his arm and half dragged him to his apartment, and to an outsider looking on the situation they looked like an over zealous young couple.

After gathering up his gamma-chan and an extra jacket they left for the market district for what seemed like the thousandth time that day. Thinking quickly as to not lose all of his money Naruto set a limit to one outfit only to which Ino agreed with quickly, free clothes were free clothes after all and she was going to milk this for all she could.

They spent over three hours running from store to store but she couldn't find anything that she already didn't have, she was her daddy's little princess after all. She was about to give up until she saw an outfit that looked similar to what she normally wore but with pants and some special designs on the back of the shirt with matching designs running down the length of the pants as well. The clothes themselves had only cost about 1200 ryu so he still had something to play with. They were about to leave the store when a scarf caught Ino's attention it was an orange bandanna with black tribal markings on it. (an orange and black version of hope's scarf from FFXIII) she thought it would look good on Naruto. Even though she loved Sauske that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy a good look every once in a while. The scarf was only 500ryu so he bought it as well and promised that he would wear it later on.

The sun went down quickly and Ino realized she spent the majority of her day shopping with Naruto, although she didn't have any complaints about it he was great company she just wished it was Sauske instead. She bid him good night and left off for her house, they had team training the next morning.

Weeks went by with the team falling into a routine of training, missions, training and lounging. Kiba and Naruto became fast friends and they even got Ino to stop being a fan-girl after she nearly collapsed after a light training session .

/Flashback/

Ino crashed to the floor huffing like an asthmatic after a dust storm, it was their first day of training as a team and they were doing light training to see where everyone else stood. The team had went on a run around Konoha at a full sprint the whole time and Ino not being used to over exerting herself like that barely made it. They soon began to workout with a hundred sit-ups, pushups, and pull ups in trees followed by a quick spar. By the end Ino was dry-heaving from not having eaten that morning and it was taking a major toll on her.

"Ino did you eat breakfast this morning?" came the concerned voice of their sensei as the only reason for her to be dry-heaving at such an early hour was to either have had a really small breakfast or to not have eaten at all. When everybody turned their attention back towards her she blushed and shook her head no. " why didn't you eat you know that you have to eat healthily otherwise it could hurt you while training." "I didn't eat because i'm on a diet, I have to watch my figure or else Sauske-kun will hate me and think I'm fat." She hastily replied in defense the response she got surprised everyone present as Asuma slapped her hard with anger in his eyes. He could understand a crush everyone has them hell, he had one on the sensei of team 8 but he wasn't going to risk his life and ninja career for it. "I'm very disappointed in you Ino. As a kunoichi you should never need to diet with all the exercising and how active our lifestyle is you need every bit of energy you can get." She balked at the thought of eating huge plates of food, and being all sweaty and smelly. Her Sauske-kun would never want a fat, smelly, big girl and she quickly expressed her reasons to them, surely they would see reason. "but I'll get smelly, and big if I do all that then Sauske-kun will hate me!" that however only earned her another slap to the face she was getting tired of that however and started yelling at him to stop hitting her. It was at that moment when she felt it, the full force of his killing intent nearly knocked her unconscious and she quickly scooted away from the foul aura. "Ino your body needs all of the nutrients from breakfast in order to work properly. You work out so your body will be more fit so you would be able to keep up with your opponents or help your endurance in case you had to retreat away from an enemy that was chasing you. We train so that we can get stronger so that our teammates don't die trying to protect us when we should have been able to protect ourselves. It all goes with the job description We. Are. Shinobi. Ino. Assassins for hire, protectors of our home Konoha and servers of the land of fire, why did you choose to become a ninja Ino? Because if you didn't want to do it for any of those reasons and think that you will gain love and that your precious Sauske-kun will save you everyday like some knight in shining armor think again."

The whole message was brutal but true she spent the better part of the rest of their training session thinking over her reasons to be a ninja when she finally remembered that she joined to take over her dad's position and make her clan proud of her. With her mind made up she went and apologized to her team and promised to stop the self-destructive lifestyle of a fan-girl.

/Flashback end/

It was a long journey but she broke herself of the bad habits that were nearly ingrained into her very being. It took time but the team had finally found a balance, Ino was the information specialist of the team. She dealt with most of the information and was the teams aerial scout. Kiba was the team tracker and front scout he and Akamaru could detect a scent from over half a mile now and were the fastest on the team battle wise. He was still hot headed and brash but he had some semblance of restraint now. Naruto was elected team leader and infiltrator after repeated success with coming up with battle strategies on the run, he was also the strongest on the team. His stealth was on par with ANBU now thanks to his darker clothing. The team quickly fell into the roll of infiltration, capture, and assault. They had already known the tree climbing and water-walking exercises due to clan teachings or in Naruto's case self studies so Asuma corrected any flaws in their existing taijutsu forms and taught Ino and Kiba how to use the shunshin technique.

Quickly running out of things to train them on he tested their affinities only to find out that Ino had earth and Kiba had lightning. Naruto already knew his and had already trained them which showed when his paper split in to crumpled and completely disappeared in a great flash of light. The team spent weeks learning some techniques for their elements. Ino had learned the c-ranked defensive technique earth style: mud wall which let the user spew out mud to form a protective wall around themselves and the earth style: mud clone jutsu which would make a clone out of mud which was more durable than the kage bunshin, although she had to seriously train her reserves to be able to use both jutsu effectively without wiping her out in one use. Kiba learned how to channel and create Raiton chakra instead due to the lack in Raiton jutsu in the fire-country. So far he was able to produce a current that would momentarily stun opponents upon contact and had even learned to use it to numb limbs to block out pain. He was now working on combining it with the newest clan jutsu he had learned the tsuga and its big brother the gatsuga but that was a secret work in progress. Naruto spent his time trying to better fine tune his wind chakra and was trying to come up with a defensive technique that would be able to protect his team as well as him he just hadn't figured it out yet. He was still a bit sore about his father and the third but he was working on dealing with it, he promised he would talk to somebody about it sooner or later. His and his teammate's thoughts were interrupted however, when their sensei called them over to meet him. "ok we are going to get our first c-ranked mission today, I know teams usually get them after the first 2 months of active duty but you all are progressing so nicely and quite frankly I don't know what else to teach you at the moment so I figure now is as good a time as any to get a new mission." The team just nodded too dumbstruck to do any thing else the only thoughts that were running through their minds was "Yes, we get a real mission, no more stupid d-ranks!" and with that they were off.

A/N

and cut! thats all i had at the moment but right after this crazy little bunny started hopping by rambling about nonsense such as possible missions and some guy named Tazua...o well please reveiw it helps motivate me. and to all the manga readers kyuubi got f'in owned lol i cant wait to see what kishi pulls next and go kushina i think i found a new look for the battle chain. until next time


	5. the Crank part 1

**A/N Wow guys its been a minute...firstly I want to appologize to all of you for this ridiculous wait things with my job went sour and then my laptop which has always been a lil retarted crapped out on me in the middle of writing this so if it seems like the writing style changes halfway you know why. I am using my moms laptop and will continue to use it until i can either get mine fixed or get a new one. I really don't feel to hot about this chap so in advance im sorry. I will work on my update schedule but I honestly cant promise you anything.**

Last time on MOTL: His and his teammate's thoughts were interrupted however, when their sensei called them over to meet him. "ok we are going to get our first c-ranked mission today, I know teams usually get them after the first 2 months of active duty but you all are progressing so nicely and quite frankly I don't know what else to teach you at the moment so I figure now is as good a time as any to get a new mission." The team just nodded too dumbstruck to do anything else the only thoughts that were running through their minds was "Yes, we get a real mission, no more stupid d-ranks!" and with that they were off.

I don't own Naruto…none of us do we all just like to think that we do. Now on with the story.

Team 10 was making their way towards the Hokage tower to stop by Mission HQ to get their mission. Asuma thought that the team was oddly quiet to be receiving their first C-ranked mission but he figured they were trying to look mature so as to not mess up the situation, he was right. He had once been a gennin as well so he knew just how frustrating D-ranked missions could be. He also remembered his team's first C-ranked mission, bandit camp elimination. Bandit elimination was the typical C-ranked mission and was generally ideal for Combat Oriented teams as it would let them get their 'first bloods' in a relatively controlled environment without the pressures of other Nin itching to slit your throat at the slightest mistake. As he finished reminiscing about his genin days his thoughts slowly went to his team.

Ino had this excited bounce in her step at the thought of being allowed on a real mission. Just the thought of actual ninja work excited her and who could blame her. For the past couple of weeks they had been doing nothing but glorified grunt work: chasing cats, painting fences, picking up garbage it was defiantly time for a change and this mission was exactly what the doctor ordered. She was also excited that they were the first team of their age group to get a higher up mission she may have gotten over Sauske but that didn't mean she wasn't competitive with her rival Sakura. She was barely controlling herself but she was determined to keep up appearances as it wouldn't do well to look like a toddler in front of potential clients.

Kiba was literally trembling from the effort of not jumping around yelling who's the best genin team ever. Out of the three rookie teams his was the first to get a higher ranked mission, it was safe to say he was geekin out on the inside. He was tired of doing nothing but civilian grade chores and was glad that at least now he could start doing shinobi work. He had been crushed when the cruel reality of D-ranked missions finally made itself known. 'I can understand needing to know how to work with each other but couldn't we do that in the academy instead of learning what our shodaime's favorite color was. That was such a waste of time...'

While Kiba and Ino were thinking of past missions and the academy Naruto was thinking along the same lines as well. 'What is the point of all these D-ranked missions that we've had to do these past weeks? Other than providing us with a quick buck they were nothing helpful even though they are required for new gennin teams…I wonder if it's a conspiracy to keep us weak until they believe we are mature enough to handle real ninja life…'

Meanwhile somewhere off in a cave Itachi Uchiha suddenly let out an aggravated sigh, "seems someone thought it would be funny to make a weak attempt at pointing out that I couldn't handle the stress of ninja life. Again, sometimes I wonder why I even put up with all of this bull."

As the team continued their trails of thought and made their way towards the Hokage tower they heard a snicker coming from Naruto and decided to see what was so funny. What they found was Naruto chucking silently to himself, and being the person that she was Ino decided to ask him what he was laughing at.

"oh well I was just imagining the look on Sauske's face when he finds out that our team is ready for a c-ranked mission in only 3 ½ weeks."

It was at that moment that Kiba busted out laughing from the mental image of the emo who looks like he belongs in the twilight series gaping like a fish out of water.

After composing themselves they hurried along and arrived at the mission wing of the tower to see team 9 walking out from reporting from a c-ranked mission, it was their sensei Might Gai who started things off.

"Ahh if it isn't Asuma and his youthful team how are you all doing on this beautiful day?"

"Hello to you to Gai, how's the team doing I haven't heard from you in a while."

"Oh, I was busy training my youthful students in preparation for this year's chuunin exams which is due in about 3 months. How about yourself are things between you and Hokage-sama stable yet?"

"…my team is doing great and as for the old man…I don't know what to do anymore, but I will get back to you with that after we get back, my team is getting it first c-ranked mission and I want to make sure nothing goes wrong."

While the team's senseis were talking the students of teams 9 and 10 introduced themselves starting with what could only be called a mini clone of team 9's sensei.

"YOSH! MY NAME IS ROCK LEE; I ENJOY TRAINING WITH MY TEAMMATES AND TAIJUTSU. I WISH TO BECOME ACKNOWLEGED AS THE BEST TAIJUTSU USER IN KONOHA EVEN BETTER THAN MY SENSEI AND TO BEAT MY ETERNAL RIVAL NEJI TO PROVE THAT YOU CAN BE A SPLENDID NINJA EVEN WITHOUT THE USE OF CHAKRA MAY I ASK WHAT YOUR NAME IS MY YOUTHFUL COMRADES." He finished off his introduction by extending his hand out to Kiba.

Kiba, who was huddling a cowering Akamaru, set the poor dog down to accept the offered hand. The poor dog's ears had been devastated by the sudden loudness and had started whimpering whilst trying to get away from the obtrusive sound. Kiba decided that he would introduce himself and then let one of the members of team 9 go and so on.

"Yo, my name is Kiba Inuzuka I like my teammates and my partner Akamaru. I wish to become part of the hunter corps and eventually take over as clan head" to which everyone nodded seeing as it was someone from their teams turn once more the only girl on the team decided to introduce herself.

"Hello my name is Tenten; my family owns the Iron Fang weapon shop, I absolutely love weapons and I am at the very least proficient with over 68 different types of weapons, and can hit a bulls-eye from over 100 yards. I aspire to be as great a kunoichi as Tsunade-sama and to be known as the greatest weapons mistress from Konoha." She finished her introduction off with an almost dreamlike smile and she also extended her hand which was quickly embraced by Ino's own manicured ones

"Well my name is Ino Yamanaka, my family owns Yamanaka flowers and my dad works for T&I. I am good at recon and geared towards support, I plan to learn some more offensive attacks and maybe some medical jutsu. I want to eventually learn torture and interrogation so I can take over for my dad when he retires. I also want to be one of the strongest and most beautiful kunoichi in all of Konoha" as Ino finished her introduction she turned and winked flirtingly at Neji and lee which only caused the former to scoff.

"Humph you are pathetic, instead of sharpening your skills you spend your time working on your looks typical fan girl. My name is Neji Hyuuga and I am the strongest gennin in all of Konoha. I detest the main family of our clan and I have no dreams as fate has already decreed that I will be nothing but a mere slave to the main family." Even as he said this the arrogant air never left him although his face turned into a scowl at the end of his mini rant, he like the rest of his team offered his hand to Naruto who took it in a rather firm grip.

"My name is Naruto, I don't appreciate it when people insult and belittle my teammates" while he said this he squeezed his hand tighter but got no reaction from neji which suited him just fine. "I am proficient in ninjutsu and my battle chain, I absolutely detest liars and my dream is to finally see the truth unedited, uncut just the raw truth about what really happened to my family." That last part was mumbled to himself but the others basically got the basic gist of it, he hated liars and only wanted the truth no matter the consequences.

After the impromptu meet and greet team's 9 and 10 left to their separate destinations the training grounds for team 9 and the mission hq for team 10. When team 10 arrived they were surprised to see Iruka working and helping assign missions. Looking up from his work Iruka smiled upon seeing his x-students and quickly called out a meeting towards them.

"Ino, Kiba, Naruto! It's good to see you all how have yal been, working hard?

Kiba smirked and answered with his chest poked out for emphasis, "You bet Iruka-sensi. Our team has been working non-stop since we graduated and now we are getting our first C-ranked mission" he answered proudly.

Suddenly all cheerfulness left Iruka's face as he began to question why they were allowed to do as such whilst unknowingly casting doubts and greatly dishonoring all of their hard work with his doubt in their skills. This did not go over well with their sensei and was stopped when Asuma gave Iruka a very heated glare which put an end to the scared chuunin's tirade.

"I know you mean well Iruka but I would appreciate it if you would refrain from doubting my students hard work and skills in front of them, myself, as well as a good number of our ninja and clients, not to mention the Hokage who is sitting right next to you stamping mission requests," stated an extremely frustrated Asuma. He might be laid back but to downplay not only his student's skills but also his skills as a teacher in front of the village leader was just wrong.

"Iruka-sensei stop this now, your making a fool of yourself" spoke the surprisingly soft voice of Naruto who had been watching the scene with his teammates who both had been shaking out of anger. They worked hard and spilt blood, sweat, and in one case tears, with the occasional vomit here or there. They earned the right to receive higher ranked missions and their previous school teacher doubted their worth in front of EVERYONE. To put it simply they felt betrayed.

At his flabbergasted look Naruto decided to continue, "first off you insulted us! Your X-students, do you believe we were not meant to be ninja? Do you believe we aren't ready to take on higher ranked missions? Do you think that we are so weak that we must remain within the safety of the classroom, doing civilian chores, and learning theory on how to perform the bunshin jutsu? If that was the case then why in the hell did you let us graduate! " as he was saying this the eyes of Iruka became wider and wider until he started to make Gai and lee look like they were squinting.

Just when they thought his rant was over Naruto decided to end the conversation and put everyone's feelings on the table with his next sentence. "Do you think that you are more qualified than our jounin-sensei, who happens to have been one of the 12 guards of the fire daimyo and also the son of our current Hokage? We're not the little kids that we were in the academy we've grown up and maybe it's time you do the same. I believe you should spend more time outside of the classroom and do some missions so that maybe the NEXT time you teach it'll be something useful so there will be no doubt that the next rookie generation will be ready for a c=ranked mission even only a few weeks after graduation."

At that everyone else in the room paled as the implications of that sentence sunk in. first Iruka had just challenged a higher ranking officer on grounds he truly had no say in. He questioned the integrity of his teaching and even downplayed his own teaching. He had essentially painted himself into a corner and he now had to tread very lightly otherwise he could very well get caught up in a very bad shit storm. Then on top of all of that he had a student of his tell him that he was too soft and that he needed to do some more ninja work before thinking about teaching future ninja's again. It was pretty plain to everyone that he had a lot of thinking to do about his future as a shinobi and teacher.

Deciding to ease the tension in the room the Hokage decided to speak up, "well I see that you have come to get a c-ranked mission, I'm sure we can find something to fit your specialties that you have listed. Just let me find something appropriate," he said as he began shuffling through the c-ranked mission pile which was pretty large due to it being the morning. "Ahh, I see we have a request from a small town outside of The Land of Hot springs to help investigate some local disappearances. Its listed as C-ranked because of the nature of the mission…simple search and rescue in a civilian town. There may however be remnants of the old shinobi force that was once Yugakure, therefore the client has opted to pay the sum of a B-ranked mission. The reason I am allowing your team to go is due to the specific make up of your team...you have the most well rounded team with 3 possible scouts, 2 heavy assault, 1 support, 2 infiltrators and a tracker. So can I trust your team to handle this responsibility because I would really hate for that altercation with Iruka to seem…well, justified. Does team 10 accept this mission?" he finished his speech by leaning back in his chair while lacing his fingers together in a pensive manner.

After all the drama with his team and Iruka just a few minutes ago Asuma decided it was best to just hurry and accept the mission and go over it with his team later. "Team 10 accepts this mission. When and where are we supposed to meet up with our client?" he asked seeing as there was nobody sending for the client he figured the request must have been flown out along with the payment to accept the mission.

"You are to meet the client at the border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot springs. The client will brief you there and will pay upon completion; if not well you know our policy on those kinds of requests. Here's the request along with information on who you are supposed to meet." With that he tossed Asuma a sealed scroll containing the information. "The will of fire burns strongly within you all, let it protect and guide you Dismissed." And with that team 10 was off to prepare for their first 'real' mission.

"All right team this is what you've waited for, go pack for about a week's worth of travel and 2 more weeks worth of clothes and necessities. Also don't forget to stock up on any equipment and ninja tools you might need and meet me at the gate in 45 minutes." And with that he disappeared in a pillar of smoke, "man we really need to work on our shunshin I'm tired of those boring leaves" spoke Kiba while making the necessary seal so he could leave as well.

"Speak for yourself dog-breath Naruto over there already has his with an orange tornado and well I'll let you see for yourself" she finished by disappearing in a shower of petals.

"What! No fair Ino too? Man this sucks, dude you have to help me with my shunshin before we leave for the mission."

"Hmm you need to conserve your chakra so after the mission or during downtime deal?"

"Deal." They shook on it and left in their own respective shunshin Kiba's had the generic leaves and Naruto's had like a double helix of orange wind shoot up around him collide and disperse..Asuma had taught them all the shunshin and how to make it your own, he also showed them how to use the combat friendly version that leaves a bunshin after-image which worked like a kawarmi that replaces with a clone instead of an actual physical object.

~At the gates

Asuma was the first to show up 15 minutes after the team split up he figured his team would be there in about 10 more minutes so he had a perfect opportunity for a smoke…having 2/3's of your team with hyper sensitive noses meant no cigarettes around them or he would have to deal with the look. It wasn't so much Kiba and Naruto he had to worry about but it was Ino…all of their complaining would grate on her nerves until she snapped and went after the cause of the problem which would be him and his cig's. she would shout and yell for a while which is easy to drown out and ignore but then she would give him that look, the look of a pissed off woman and no matter what he tried looking away, closing his eyes, you just felt her eyes staring at you and you could see just how angry she was…let it be known that no man can stand up to the look.

The first to arrive was Naruto he had on pretty much the same thing he always wore but now he had his head band as a bandanna to cover up most of his hair which he had grown to about shoulder length and had actually stopped spiking up so much due to how often he kept it suppressed under the bandanna. He also had his chain wrapped around his waist like a belt and his black and orange pack by his feet…there was a noticeable sealing scroll sticking out but he didn't feel like thinking about it anymore.

"Hey sensei you know Kiba is going to get here soon you might want to hurry up, you know how he gets.." advised Ino who had just arrived to the sight of Naruto supposedly rummaging through his bag with only his head and their sensei with one of his cigarettes in his mouth.

Ino hadn't changed too much since the academy appearance wise she still wore the skirt and weird top but now she didn't wear bandages around her stomach showing off her newly toned abs which had come as a result of the strenuous workouts her team did. She also wore this weird hair accessory which looked like a purple scrunchie at first glance, but upon closer inspection turned out to be some weird container that held a light purple liquid in it. The liquid was a psychoactive substance that turned clear when exposed to air that tricked your body into thinking you're doing a combination of falling, and spinning while moving in slow motion. Thankfully it only releases the purple carnival as Kiba and Naruto so lovingly named it when chakra is pushed into the trinket. He could still remember when she received it as a present for getting over her fan-girl problem, boy that was a day to remember.

~Flashback

The team had just met Anko after another batch of successful D-ranked missions. They were having lunch at one of the dango stands that was close to their usual training grounds when she showed up and recognized Naruto in his different clothes. "Hey gaki you finally got rid of that Orange massacre you called shinobi clothes?" she asked while looking him up and down like he was a piece of meat. She was slightly disappointed when all she got in response was a nod and a mumbled something...seeing as she wasn't going to get a response from Naruto she would mess with the rest of the team, things had been going slow as of late and she needed some entertainment. So eying the rest of the team she saw Ino and her eyes practically lit up with the words jackpot while at the same time an imaginary sign popped up behind her that stated Fan Girl. "So I heard Sauske is learning how to water walk topless in the hot-springs.." she stated conversationally hoping to get a reaction, but only to be disappointed when she got a I've seen better in response. It wasn't much but at least she had potential for some sort of teasing. "Oh really now and who looks better than the oh so mighty Uchiha?"

"Well no offense but he looks so pale it's almost as if he never gets out during the day. I have seen both Naruto and Kiba in nothing but shorts when we first started sparing on top of the water to help build reserves and they look 10 times better than Sauske topless, and to further prove her point she made a show of pulling them both out of their chairs before lifting the fronts of their shirts over their heads exposing them to the whole store which brought out a whistle from Anko and a round of giggles and blushes from the females in the store while Asuma banged his head on the table mumbling "dear Kami not another one."

~Flashback end

Ino and Anko had hit it off and become good friends as a result of her brazenness and she eventually gave her that as a present for a T&I hopeful as well as from one Kunoichi to another stating that they had to look out for one another. Similar incidents occurred as a result of their friendship and the boys had taken to wearing thick bandages over their stomach and chest whenever they went out for dango.

Asuma sighed and checked the time only to find out that while he was busy remembering the times when Ino had embarrassed the boys or almost gotten them rapped he didn't realize that Kiba had arrived with Akamaru trailing behind. He had been staying behind to do some training with Kuromaru for the past couple of days as he had been growing at an accelerated rate recently and was now stood up to Kiba's knee instead of halfway as he should have been. They had him stay behind to run some test to make sure that nothing dangerous was happening to him, but everything checked out in the end. Seeing as everyone was accounted for and ready to go he called them over to him. After taking out a picture of an elderly looking man and checking the location they decided to head on out as further instructions would be discussed when they arrived.

"Ok team this our first official mission not a warm-up or chore but an actual mission. Let's move out and I will explain some things along the way. Understood?" when they all answered in the positive collectively team 10 took off to the trees.

Tree hoping was one of the fastest ways for Konoha shinobi to travel due to the vast amount of trees and forest that populated fire country. It was because of these forest the shinobi of Konoha were almost unbeatable in fire country thus being able to boast having been one of the few countries to have never been successfully taken down during war.

As the team was hopping along towards the border Asuma started to speak again.

"Listen up team 'cause I'm only going to say this once. This mission is a high C-ranked borderline B-ranking mission. There's a high possibility of things going wrong and in the unlikely situation where you run up on enemy Nin you might be required to kill." At this he noticed his students lagging behind slightly so he slowed and waited for them to catch up before he continued."I'm not going to lie to you the Land of Hot spring is a pretty shifty place, lots of bad stuff happens around those parts…I want you al to promise to listen to every order I give you If it's to kill some 8 year old girl you do it in that instant…the people…everything you encounter there could very well be a lie. Last I heard some cultist went nuts and massacred a bunch of people, which led to the dissolution of Yugakure so no matter what keep sharp. Now I have an exercise I want you all to work on while we travel. I want you all to come up with a way to free yourselves of these chains before we stop for lunch in 3 hours, have fun and don't be afraid to trade ideas 3 heads are better than 1" and with that he quickly bound their hands in front of them with a decent sized chain and locked them with a small pad-lock with their hands turned so the backs touched making it damn-near impossible to use hand signs.

"These chains are special made; they act as cuffs but don't allow for much movement of the wrist. This will help out in the case of getting captured and could even help in the creation of your own personal jutsu as I expect you to use your aligned elements to get it done…oh and don't forget to keep up he he he."

All at once the chained up members started mumbling

"Why that fucking…..evil…..…...good for nothing…...bastard!

"That fucking…...sadistic…...lazy ass…..…...bastard!

"Damn…...chain-smoking…...slave driving bastard!

They all looked at each other and started laughing before finally focusing on the task at hand.

"So we have to figure a way to get out of these chains before lunch….god this is going to be fun! Ok I'm out so we have to figure out how to get you and Kiba out, I just sliced mine," stated Naruto while showing his cuff less hands.

"WHAT? No fair how did you get out so fast he just gave us this assignment like 5 minutes ago…what happened to the dead-last, I miss the old you.." Kiba muttered while looking down-cast.

Ino looked confused for a moment before she gasped and looked at him like she discovered something that would be gold for gossip. "Umm Kiba? Do you like Naruto?" she asked hesitantly.

"Ino What the Hell? Yea I like him as a team-mate but in a totally non-homo way. I do what dog's do by nature thank you very much." He yelled before glaring at her murderously. "I meant that I missed being better than him…now I feel like the dobe with him getting better all of a sudden u know…"

"hmm yea I get what you mean…it's pretty weird…how did you get so much better all of a sudden 'ruto? It's like now your all calm and can actually do things without making such a fool of yourself."

"Yeah what gives man how'd ya do it?"

Naruto thought about it for a while contemplating what he should do. 'Well I can either tell them the truth or lie to them…humph tough decision.' "How about I tell you guys when we get some free time away from the mission, and instead focus on helping you get out of those cuffs."

Seeing the logic in his answer and the fact that he was going to tell them after the mission they decided to work on getting out of the cuffs.

"Well I just cut mine off, it was pretty easy with my wind chakra but I don't really see a way for you to get loose without hurting yourselves. Can you pick locks?"

"Yea I can why what do you have in mind?" Ino asked. Kiba was still trying to figure a way out of his bonds at the moment

"Well I know you can use your chakra in your hair to trap them but maybe you can use your Earth type chakra to harden your hair and find some way to pick it…your hair is long enough to reach your hands anyway…although it would take a bunch of control…"

She thought about it for a while before deciding to try it anyway flipping her hair so her pony-tail would be over her shoulder and by the lock on the chains.

As Ino worked on hardening her hair and controlling it kiba thought of something he had saw in a movie, the hero's had made this magnet with electricity and metal if he could somehow make the chains repel each other he might be able to slip through his bonds. It would be hard as hell but he was stubborn if anything and he would be damned if he was the only one who didn't escape.

1 hour and 30 minutes had past and ino had finally freed herself from her chains at the cost of now grimy and wild looking hair. Kiba was still working dilligantly but all he succeeded in doing was magnetizing the chain so that it would constrict on him more and what was worse was since the chain was so tight it got harder to concentrate on his task.

"Crap why is it that I am the only one left in chains? I swear this isn't funny I'm always the last to get something help me out you guys." Whined Kiba, it was true when they started elemental chakra Ino had beaten him in completing their first exercise which was to make a ball roughly the size of her fist by concentrating doton chakra into the ground and making it shape around a small pebble. Naruto had already learned it so he worked on quickening the use of his futon chakra leaving Kiba in the dust.

"Hey man your almost done you made the chain constrict against you and your not charging chakra into it at the moment right?" Naruto asked. At Kiba's nod he continued with his advice, "well what you should do now is charge the lock to repel until it breaks and goes flying. Just make sure to aim it at Asuma-sensei, I don't want to get hit by that and you know what time its getting close to…" he murmured while casting a quick glance at Ino who was busy trying to at least get her hair back into the pony tail which currently looked like a mess of needles and spikes, obviously a result of her new technique. "anyway my point is your almost there if you could make the chain repel the lock then you're done…then maybe you could work on doing individual links later but we only have like an hour left so you might want to step on it."

"Ok man thanks for the help and sorry about the whole pity party earlier it's just you know I was so used to being smarter and now you're just shooting ahead…its mind boggling sometimes and I guess I still need to adjust." Kiba said before concentrating his chakra on the lock which was harder due to it not being in direct contact with him.

"no prob man you're my teammate and I gotta look out for the guy that watches my back right?" he answered back while patting him on the back and jumping ahead…he had something he wanted to work on…using futon chakra as blunt force instead of only to cut. He couldn't practice using wind chakra in spars because he only knew how to cut and as a result his skill using it had suffered. "Hmm maybe if I let my chakra flow like in great breakthrough without the blades and imagine…."

~MotL ~

Before the team knew it the time for lunch had arrived and a whistling Asuma cooked a couple of wild rabbits he had saw on the way while 3 very tired and grumbling gennin waited. Asuma had forbidden them from eating their packed lunches claiming that they needed to learn to live off the land like real shinobi. Their food was packed into storage scrolls so they wouldn't go bad due to the stasis affect that the sealing had...it was too complicated for them to understand.

"It'll be another few minutes so why don't you tell me how you escaped your bonds I'm curious as to how you did it.

The three looked at each other before silently agreeing that Naruto should go first followed by Ino and Kiba who's explanation was the coolest.

"well mine was just a simple matter of sharpening my chakra to where it could cut through the links…I've been practicing cutting trees the same way lately so it was easy enough." Explained Naruto, who really thought nothing of the technique as he was busy trying to work on his manipulation skills with his wind.

Nodding in thought he moved on to Ino who had begun her explanation. "Well I didn't have too many options available to me so I simply used the doton chakra to harden my hair and then controlled with the dirt and grime that built up this whole time to pick open the lock…but my hair is a mess now." She muttered, she really loved her hair and to have intentionally dirtied and possibly damaged her hair like that was tough for her.

Asuma smiled at her explanation, it was quite genius using her long hair to pick the lock while unintentionally starting the process of learning the gamma sennins hair techniques…maybe he could ask him to give her some pointers. "Ok, last but certainly not least Kiba what do you have for us?"

Kiba straightened up and poked his chest out a bit before proudly beginning his explanation." Well sensei I used my chakra to magnetize the chain together and then after some time I managed to make the lock push away enough to bend the lock open, but it took most of my chakra to do it though."

When he was finished Asuma got up and clapped him on the back in congratulations. "Good work my boy do you know how useful it would be if you could use that jutsu to repel kunai and shuriken? It could really save your lives one day.

Kiba beamed at the praise he was given by his sensei. Ever since the team had formed his idea of being top dog was shot, maimed and left to rot with the sudden change of power by Naruto. Now though it seemed that things were finally leveling out while Naruto had only worked on polishing his new techniques he and Ino had spent the time training to catch up and getting to the point where they were able to freely manipulate their elemental affinities while still learning a couple of supplementary techniques as well.

After their rest team 10 once again set of to the Land of Hot springs which was east of the former Land of Rice Fields or as it is now being called The Land of Sound.

"Hey sensei where exactly are we going?" Kiba asked noting that they were going north from Konoha "wouldn't it be easier to cut through the forest going northeast instead of heading directly north?" he finished with some slight confusion and his teammates had to agree with him. "Yea wouldn't it be easier to just head straight there?" Naruto asked.

Asuma chuckled at his students it seemed that they didn't bother to pay attention to geography during the academy although he couldn't really blame them as he didn't when he was their age.

"Well in theory it would be easier to head straight there but there happens to be an active volcano that splits the two countries apart. If we were to make it past the heat we would have to worry about the steam vents and natural geysers…not exactly your idea stroll for barely 2 month gennin, I'm not that heartless. Therefore we will head up to the Valley of the End which splits the borders almost like a Y. We will then travel east for 2 hours where we should be able to reach the check-in and rendezvous with our client, but if you still want to after the mission we could have a little training session there if you guys want," as Asuma said the last part a dark aura and a slight maniacal grin appeared in his eye as he thought of the revenge he would get on them for separating him from his precious.

Now no matter how much effort they put into trying to seem mature and collected Kiba and Naruto got absolutely giddy at the idea of training at a volcano, so when they started nodding their heads vigorously with eyes light up in flame Ino could only shake her head at their idiocy as she was sure they had missed the evil gleam in their sensei's eye. She started to protest only to have Asuma cut her off…

"Did I mention after the training we would go and enjoy one of the natural hot-springs before heading back to Konoha?" he said with an impish smile. Teenagers are so gullible' he thought to himself.

"You got yourself a deal sensei! And you had better not laze out on us either!" Ino had an aura of fire surrounding her that was so intense that all of the male members of the team backed away from her in fear.

"Geez Ino psycho much?" Kiba taunted from the safety of his senseis back as Naruto wisely moved out of the way.

"Ehherm, can we get back to the mission we have things to do, people to see, money to be made, and a force of nature to tame."

"…"

"…"

"…"

Everyone looked at Naruto who had hurried off towards the smell of water. It seemed that they had lost track of time with their shenanigans as before them stood this huge waterfall with 2 equally huge statues of their village's founding fathers Hirashima Senju and Madara Uchiha.

"Man this place is fuckin awesome!" Naruto surprisingly exclaimed. "This is where one of the most famous battles known to the entire elemental nations was held. They even say that their fight had actually formed this valley you kno…wow."

Kiba and Ino looked at Naruto surprised, they didn't expect him to be so verbal and excited about this place. "Well looks like you have a ways to go before you can claim to be on the level with the Fathers of the Leaf eh Naruto?" Kiba asked Naruto while nudging him in the side only to get a small nod and a smile.

"Well we are going to get strong like that one day right?" She said it as a question but everyone knew she meant it as a statement; they were going to get strong together and then get old.

"Ok enough with the chit-chat lets go we have a mission to do. We can bond and get stronger after this mission; something tells me we shouldn't waist too much more time." Stated Asuma with an unfamiliar look on his face. 'Something tells me that this happy mood won't last for long' he thought to himself.

With a chorus of agreements the team sped through before making their way to meet their client.

~MOTL~

Their client was a fairly average guy, about 5'10 black hair brown eyes, average features wore clothes that seemed to fit the climate comfortably and he even had tattoo of a dragon on his upper arm. He was a simple shop owner but was sent out on the behalf of their village. The actual village was just an hour away by carriage so the team rested up while the man, Minagami Hayato explained the situation with their village.

There seemed to be some disappearances lately it started off with one of the town's peoples daughters missing then a couple of days later a brother and sister turned up missing as well. Most of the kidnappings happened during the middle of the night and the targets were all under the age of 12. It had gotten to the point where their leader sent out a request to Konoha for help as over half the children under the age of 12 were missing.

It was maybe 4 or 5 past noon by the time they had reached the village and as they made their way to the town center they heard the desperate cries of the villagers.

"Please save our daughter!"

"Please find our Mirai-chan!"

"Can someone please find my Yuu-kun?"

"Please find my baby!"

The sight of the parents begging for their children's lives and safety sent a pang of longing into Naruto's heart...all of those years of wanting to know what happened to his parents or just who they were...he knew how they felt. The insecurity and anxiousness of not knowing what was going to happen it was too much for him to take at the moment. Ino, noticing the pained look on her teammates face nudged Kiba who had a far-off look on his face. When she finally got his attention they both put their hands on his shoulder and gave him a look of reassurance.

"Please shinobi-san can you help us find our villages children and stop whoever is taking them please?"

One of the parents had gotten in front of them on their knees. They were putting all of their hope into their hands, could they find their sons and daughters before it was too late or would something unspeakable happen to them. Either way that was a big pill to swallow especially for their first mission. Naruto being the unofficially leader of the three decided to squash his feelings and try to put the parents at ease.

"Yes…we will do our very best to find your loved ones, every last one of them, and after that we'll make the bastards who did this pay…you can bet on that."

Asuma for his part didn't even have to think of his answer, his team had summed it up for him perfectly. He was busy thinking of the best way to go about the search.

"Of course we will help you out, now can you get us a sample of your children's clothing's or one of their possessions so we can get a scent to track it by. Also can you all gather some pictures if you have them as they will help tremendously. We will also need the number of children we are looking for. If you can secure all of this within the hour we can get started and hopefully have them located before the night falls in a couple of hours."

After the villagers left to get the requested items he turned his attention to his team." Ok team while the villagers are gathering what we need to conduct the search I want you all to rest up for a bit, you're going to need as much energy as you can spare for this do you understand? Good now Ino I want you to over shadow a bird with good eyesight, I saw a hawk when we first entered the village I will go with you to secure it, Kiba and Akamaru I want you to start at the last known residence that had a child abducted, see if you can catch some unfamiliar scents and Naruto I want 100 clones to do a complete sweep from which ever direction Kiba and Akamaru lead you Ino will be our eyes in the sky do you understand?"

After receiving three nods in confirmation he handed out 3 chakra powered radio transmitters… "we will use channel 4 make sure to report anything unusual now Ino come with me we have a bird to catch, Kiba and Naruto I want you two to rest up we have a long night ahead of us."

"Hai sensei" they all answered in unison. Their first mission search and rescue had officially started

A/N

Ok guys this is it and belive it or not im already ready go now that i have some ideas good music and a dependable computer...hopefully part 2 will be out before you know it please review..they give me inspiration and motivation so please hit the nice button that says review and let me know what you think...constructive criticism is welcomed

On a side note Darui looked fuckin badass in the latest chapter


End file.
